The Lord of the Rings films do justice to plenty of characters, but one who gets a slightly short end of the stick is Saruman. While Christopher Lee has no trouble stealing the show in his scenes, Saruman's story is cut slightly short, and even the coda in the Extended Edition is an abrupt ending compared to his role in the books.
For anyone who's ever wanted a remix of Saruman's saga, however, that time has finally come. Saruman can still meet his doom in Hands Of The White Wizard, but this new take also offers a chance to "change the ending and save the White Wizard from corruption."
Courtesy of Free League Publishing, Hands of the White Wizard is a new book of adventures for the tabletop RPG The One Ring. Each adventure follows a group of heroes interacting with Saruman in the years between the events of The Hobbit and the climactic war in The Lord of the Rings, and they can be played either alone or as part of a larger story.
The opportunity to save Saruman from corruption is obviously a major break from canon, as it portends significantly more than the redemption of a single character. Without Saruman's involvement, Sauron's schemes and the War of the Ring as a whole would play out very differently. Following up on those threads in a TTRPG campaign is its own can of worms, but Hands of the White Wizard is certainly an interesting opportunity for fans interested in rewriting the script.
The One Ring isn't the only way to play out Lord of the Rings adventures at the tabletop, but it's earned a reputation over the years as a particularly potent option. Free League also offers The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying products, which convert much of the same material to a format based on Dungeons & Dragons 5e. While that can be more inviting for D&D players, The One Ring's approach arguably fits the tone of The Lord of the Rings better than a 5e-based system.
More broadly, tabletop roleplaying isn't for everyone, but it might be the best way to continue telling stories in The Lord of the Rings in the modern era. Personally, I'm a lot more confident in the ability of fans to have fun meddling in Saruman's story than in the strength of future film and television projects. Hopefully, Hands of the White Wizard will be the perfect platform for plenty of truly unique The Lord of the Rings stories from here on out.
The Lord of the Rings is a multimedia franchise consisting of several movies and a TV show released by Amazon titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The franchise is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book series that began in 1954 with The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings saw mainstream popularity with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
