I appreciate they are limited on rights, but they can ask specific permission for certain things. What is the point of Simon Tolkien being the shows payroll, surely he must have some say in how is grandfather's works are adapted.

First they got the order of the creation of the rings wrong and whom they was originally intended for. Now they've got this wrong, it is Annatar who shows the Eleven smiths how to make the rings. Sauron is the greatest living Smith in Middle Earth., being a maia of Aule.

We can only hope that there is a twist and the both the Stranger and the Dark Wizard are Blue wizards, and the show is using Gandalf and Saruman traits for the characters. Unfortunately this is seeming to be unlikely as they have taken so much liberty with the lore to date.

Let's hope it is not Gandalf but one of the two Blue wizards. Gandalf definitely does not turn up until the 3rd Age, whereas the other two do and both travel to the East, in-line with how the ROP story seems to be going.