The Rings Of Power Just Retconned Gandalf’s Most Iconic LOTR Scene

Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings TV series The Rings of Power is back later this year for its third season, which is set to be very different from the ones that came before it. Season 3 will focus squarely on the rise of Sauron to the status of an indomitable dark lord who transforms the established order of Middle Earth.

In telling the story, The Rings of Power is remaking at least one classic scene from The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Perhaps even more importantly, though, a key change to one of the franchise’s biggest villains effectively retcons the most iconic scene of Ian McKellen’s Gandalf.

Probably the most terrifying monsters in The Lord of the Rings are balrogs, demonic Maiar spirits with especially imposing physical forms shrouded in towering flames and piercing darkness. In Peter Jackson’s movie The Fellowship of the Ring, the balrog Durin’s Bane also has huge horns and broad wings, features which have been carried over to The Rings of Power’s balrog.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf faces down Durin’s Bane in a spectacular confrontation that ultimately leads to his death. While debates rage about Gandalf’s best Lord of the Rings quote, this scene’s defining line “You shall not pass!” is universally considered his most iconic. Rings of Power season 3 effectively repeats this showdown, but with one crucial difference.

The Rings Of Power Is Repeating Gandalf’s Iconic Scene With Durin’s Bane

25 years on from Ian McKellen’s famous cinematic rendering of Gandalf’s balrog speech in The Lord of the Rings, the franchise’s Prime Video spinoff has essentially remade the scene with Sauron in Gandalf’s stead. As revealed by the show’s latest behind-the-scenes teaser, The Rings of Power’s third season sees the ascendant dark lord of Mordor confront an unnamed balrog head-on.

The balrog in question looks much the same as Durin’s Bane in The Fellowship of the Ring, which was clearly the direct inspiration for its physical appearance. However, this new version of the demon does something that’s a first for The Lord of the Rings franchise. It talks, sharing dialogue with Sauron during their showdown.

Although Durin’s Bane repeatedly roars in Gandalf’s direction during their iconic confrontation in The Fellowship of the Ring, and lets out a desperate wail as he falls to his death, he never actually speaks. In fact, no balrog in J. R. R. Tolkien’s original literary universe ever says a word.

By contrast, The Rings of Power has actually brought in a well-known screen performer to voice its balrog’s speaking part. Shaun of the Dead, The Boys and Star Wars actor Simon Pegg will play this villainous spirit in the show’s third season. Nevertheless, exactly how the balrog’s speaking voice sounds remains a closely guarded secret.

Season 3’s Talking Balrog Changes How We See Gandalf’s Death Scene

While a talking balrog doesn’t necessarily depart from Tolkien’s original lore, The Rings of Power is casting Gandalf’s big-screen death scene in a whole new light by adding this feature of the monster to its face-off with Sauron. The show’s highly anticipated season 3 sequence inevitably raises questions about why Durin’s Bane doesn’t speak to Gandalf.

For many viewers, the disparity between the dialogue Sauron and The Rings of Power’s balrog share and the lack of verbal response to Gandalf from Durin’s Bane may well make Ian McKellen’s great wizard appear even more heroic. Perhaps Durin’s Bane has nothing to say to Gandalf because there is no common ground between them.

The full extent to which a talking balrog reframes one of the most iconic scenes in The Lord of the Rings movies will become clear once The Rings of Power season 3 is released on Prime Video. In any case, it’s an innovation that has already polarized fans of the franchise, generating debates around the world.