The Order of Istari, also known as the Five Wizards or simply Istari (tr. from Elvish "Wizards"), was a group of five Maiar sent as emissaries of the Valar to oppose Sauron. The task of the Five Wizards was to help the Free Peoples against the Dark Lord, should he return, and rally those he would try to enslave.
As soon as the Mystics realize the Stranger isn't Sauron, they label him an "Istar." With this label, and several other hints throughout the episode and the season, The Rings of Power has all but confirmed that the Stranger is everyone's favorite wizard: Gandalf the Grey. Let's break it down.
The Order of Wizards (Quenya: Heren Istarion), or simply Wizards (Q.: Istari), were a group of Maiar sent to Middle-earth by the Valar in the Third Age (possibly the late Second Age).
The Powers of the Istari (Wizards) | Tolkien Explained
Did Gandalf or Saruman come first?
Saruman arrived at the Grey Havens in Middle-Earth with three other Istari: the Blue Wizards, Allatar and Pallando and Radagast the Brown. Gandalf arrived last.
The Rings of Power Season 1 revealed that the Meteor Man is an Istar, a powerful being sent as an encourager to Middle-earth by the Maiar. The series heavily implies that the Meteor Man is none other than Gandalf the Grey, but doesn't yet introduce the other four Istar who were also sent to the physical realm.
The Rings of Power's earliest signals that the Stranger is Gandalf concern his physical appearance and costume. Daniel Weyman's character first drops from the sky sporting long gray hair and an impressive beard, and when Nori fashions some clothes for her new friend, the garments she picks are also gray.
While The Rings of Power season 1 includes no overt clues to suggest a direct link between Harfoot characters and the Fellowship Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, several subtle details indicate that Nori Brandyfoot could potentially be an ancient relative of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.
As such, he was immortal and extremely powerful, yet had limits on how far these powers could be used. His two most salient powers were his knowledge and his voice. Saruman was, in a very real way, the junior brother of Sauron both having been Maia of Aulë, Valar of Smithcraft, in the very beginnings of time.
He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.
In the manuscript of his notes for translators, Tolkien suggested that the Witch-king of Angmar was most likely of Númenórean origin. Fontenot comments that this could make him both a Maia rather than a Man, and originally one of the Istari, or, as she states, "something decidedly other".
The Valar created a class of beings called the Maiar to shape the world. Technically, the the istari are Maiar, as is Sauron. The wizards' powers are more limited than Sauron's, but they are all magical.
To learn about what is considered "canon", see LOTR:Canon. "The Stranger" was a moniker given to one of the Istari who arrived in Middle-earth during the Second Age via meteorite.
The Wizards or Istari in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction were powerful angelic beings, Maiar, who took the form of Men to intervene in the affairs of Middle-earth in the Third Age, after catastrophically violent direct interventions by the Valar, and indeed by the one god Eru Ilúvatar, in the earlier ages.
That is, until Nori reassures him that he is good and meant to be the light in that darkness. It's that friendship with Nori that develops throughout the season, according to Weyman, that shows the Stranger the path forward to becoming (we assume) Gandalf.
Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), that Hobbit ancestor known as a Harfoot, is the Frodo/Bilbo piloting this ship. She has eyes as wide as Elijah Wood's and a matching wonder about the world, a curiosity that often gets her, and by extension, her best friend Poppy (Megan Richards), into trouble.
I think it likely that the hobbits found out more about Gandalf after the conclusion of the War of the Ring. At the least, the Ringbearers, Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, almost certainly knew by the time they arrived at Tol Eressea.
Halbrand does not deny his heroism out of bashful humility, though; he knows that as Sauron, he's not the hero she wants him to be for the Southlands -- not when his plans involve scorching it into Mordor. No, Halbrand was never a hero, nor did he ever claim to be.
Stars wheeled overhead, and every day was as long as the life age of the earth." From that explanation, it makes perfect sense why Gandalf wouldn't remember much. He had left the confines of time, reembodied his Maiar form and been thrust back into the mortal realm. That doesn't bode well for remembering minutia.
There were five Istari that came during Third Age, and they were among the most powerful beings in Middle-Earth: Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Alatar, and Pallando. Related: Lord Of The Rings: How Old is Gandalf?
Halbrand is the form of a Human that he has taken in order to trick people, in the series. It's well documented in the Silmarillion that Sauron can take on pretty much any form he likes, and he seems to generally default to 'fair' form. So looking like Charlie Vickers isn't really a problem.
Spoiler alert: Isildur is not dead. Isildur is the man who eventually cuts the ring from the hand of Sauron. But he's too power-hungry to throw the ring into the fires of Mount Doom as Elrond instructs him. His is a tragic story, though he turns out to be the ancestor to Aragorn.
