That’s true, however that was more or less a footnote and not something that featured in the published works. Hence why I said ‘canonically’, as in ‘going by the books’.
I think it would have been fine for the RoP writers to have The Stranger be a blue wizard on this basis, though.
Uh, weren’t the blue wizards around in the 2nd age?
Nope. Canonically, the blue wizards arrived around the same time as their more famous brothers, early in the Third Age.
According to https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Blue_Wizards the later writings retconned this, and they arrived in Middle-Earth in the 2nd age.
That’s true, however that was more or less a footnote and not something that featured in the published works. Hence why I said ‘canonically’, as in ‘going by the books’.
I think it would have been fine for the RoP writers to have The Stranger be a blue wizard on this basis, though.