Spoilers for Season 3, Episode 3 of Rings of Power are ahead! You can stream the first four episodes with an Amazon Prime subscription.
At the end of Rings of Power Season 2, The Stranger finally realized his name was Gandalf. Now, in Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings prequel, he’s really starting to look like the wizard we know and love. That became especially true in Episode 3, which was part of a four-episode premiere on the 2026 TV schedule, because Gandalf finally got his hat. So, in honor of this monumental moment, I asked Daniel Weyman about putting on such an iconic piece of his costume, and he told me the deeper meaning behind it.
Of course, those of us who love The Lord of the Rings movies associate Gandalf with his robe, staff and big hat. Now, in The Rings of Power, he has all of that. Weyman explained during an interview with CinemaBlend that talking to audiences about this really hammers home the notion that he’s portraying a version of the character Ian McKellen also famously played on screen. Meanwhile, within the story, Gandalf has no clue about the significance and history of that hat. However, it still carries significant meaning to him, as Weyman explained:
What did Gandalf want to do with that hat? Well, he just had this argument with Tom Bombadil, a really serious argument, as it turns out, where Tom Bombadil has disappeared when he comes back. And how does that sit with Gandalf? And then, when this hat magically sort of rolls down to his feet, the final thing, the last vestige of Tom Bombadil in the hut, and Gandalf knows his purpose is to go through the desert, which nearly killed him [in] Season 2.
At the beginning of Season 3, Gandalf is hanging out with Tom Bombadil, and as Weyman said, they get into an argument. After that, the wizard finds The Secret Fire, learns about the other wizards who were sent to Middle-earth, and he becomes aware of the fact that his mission is to help save the Dark Wizard. When he returns to Tom Bombadil’s hut, Tom is gone, and a hat blows over to Gandalf. According to Daniel Weyman, through all this, his character realizes it's time to go back through the desert.
However, there’s more to this. According to the actor, getting this hat is also a symbol of friendship, and it’s part of his armor. Tom Bombadil left this for him, and it helps Gandalf realize his mission and come to terms with the fact that he’s not alone:
He finds that this hat is both a piece of his friendship, but it's also a piece of his armor, and he puts it on. He feels the sun beat down on his head, and he has to put it on because the desert's dangerous. And so, weirdly, in that moment, yes, we're all going to see the outline of it and understand what that means for us, because we know about Gandalf in our world. But for him, he now feels like he's more complete, because he's got another friend to go on a journey with, because he's got another piece of his soft armory.
Weyman went on to tell me that the “key” for him while playing such an iconic character is to “stay present with” his story. He also noted that whether you consider the hat’s history or not, this moment did help Gandalf feel “more complete.”
Now, if you’d like to see how this transformation continues, you can catch the next two episodes of Rings of Power’s third season on Wednesday, November 18.
