He is also said to have been the wisest and most foresighted of all the elves, a skill bestowed upon him by the Valar as a reward for giving up his own dream of Valinor to help and guide those of his people who had not yet returned to the West. His gift of foresight not only plays into his decision to establish the Grey Havens at the beginning of the Second Age, but to foster a young Gil-galad and Eärendil, and eventually to pass his ring of power to Gandalf. In Tolkien’s accounts, it is also Cirdan who serves as Gil-galad’s lieutenant during their face-off with Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance, and who stands alongside Elrond to urge Isildur to destroy the One Ring. As film fans know, his role in these events was largely just given to Elrond outright, likely to avoid having to explain the Cirdan’s long history and subsequent absence from the events of The Lord of the Rings.
Technically, prior to The Rings of Power, Cirdan has only appeared onscreen twice: in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot during the prologue to Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring and a similarly brief moment during the concluding moments of The Return of the King as Gandalf and Frodo prepare to depart for Valinor. In both, he’s a blurry, largely background figure who isn’t even given a name, a move that implies the third original Elven ringbearer isn’t all that important. It’s a mistake that The Rings of Power clearly hopes to correct.
Here, Cirdan is presented as the de facto leader of the elves, the literal oldest and wisest of all, whose skill and counsel are valued above any others. Pretty much everyone seems to be in a state of near-constant awe of him, even Gil-galad, and his general rock star energy attracts the sort of universal acclaim and fawning that you just know Celebrimbor would do anything to duplicate for himself. When Elrond doesn’t know what to do about Galadriel and the three Elven rings, he heads straight for the Grey Havens and Cirdan. When a final voice is needed to determine whether to use the rings or accept the fading of the Elves, Cirdan ultimately tips the scales in their favor, despite having almost destroyed them himself. He is the first to put on a ring and will most likely be the first to pass one on to another, considering that we know that his ring, Narya, becomes Gandalf’s at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Where this character goes from here is anyone’s guess. In Tolkien’s works, Cirdan is a fairly underrated and underused figure, a being with more backstory than actual characterization. And while he greatly impacts the events of both the Second and Third Age, he largely does so from a distance, crafting ships to aid those Elves who wish to sail to the West, building bonds with the men of Numenor, and indirectly helping Gandalf’s quest.