'Rings of Power' star: Gandalf has fully "arrived" as the wizard we know in Season 3

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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 star Daniel Weyman has teased how Gandalf will play into the series going forward. Speaking during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the actor revealed that the iconic Lord of the Rings character has "arrived".

"We've seen in this in this time gap between season two and season three-he's been sitting around with Tom Bombadil," Weyman said at the panel attended by GamesRadar+. "He's been trying to learn his stuff, and he can't make a sense of these riddles that Tom keeps coming up with. But he is-he is learning. I think we will agree-he has arrived in season three. He's in his power. He has agency. He's the Gandalf. I think we all hopefully know and love, and that means that as he tries to influence what's going on in Middle Earth as the darkness is rising."

Weyman also teased a bit about what Gandalf will be doing in the upcoming season. "He's on the lookout for people whose hearts have been chilled, that have been frozen," he added. "He's going to try and rewarm them. He's going to rekindle them to like a place where they can where they can grow and they can love again. So hopefully, we're going to be watching him through season three, work all ways of helping to defeat [Sauron]."

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay also teased what to expect from the new season at the panel and were in attendance with plenty of the cast, including Benjamin Walker, Charlie Vickers, Jamie Campbell Bower, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Owain Arthur, and Ismael Cruz Cordova.

The third season features a big time jump from season 2 as we head into a new era of war between the Elves and Sauron. This is also the season where we finally get to see the Dark Lord forging the One Ring to rule them all, a key moment in Lord of the Rings history.

Speaking ahead of SDCC, McKay told Empire that the filming this was "the single most ambitious, technically challenging sequence we've ever done on the show. Charlie’s performance is absolutely staggering. We never could have prepared for it."

Elsewhere, we also got our first look at Gandalf in all his glory, following on from his reveal at the end of season 2 . He appeared on a side of a bus making its way through San Diego wearing his signature hat.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 begins on Prime Video on November 11. Check out our SDCC 2026 schedule and follow along with our San Diego Comic Con 2026 live coverage .

For more, check out our guide to the best Prime Video shows as well as our SDCC wish list for what we hope is revealed this year.