Saruman appears as a minor villain in "Lego Dimensions", in which he allies himself with main antagonist Lord Vortech. Asteroid 418532 Saruman was named after the wizard and in honor of actor Christopher Lee. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 25 September 2018 (). [a] The volume published as "The Silmarillion" in 1977 contains four books in addition to the "Quenta Silmarillion". The last of these—"Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"—covers Saruman's earlier history, but was written after "The Lord of the Rings". Note: For ease of reference, citations of "Letters" include
Saruman begins roughly where Bakshi's film ends but does not include Saruman's character. BBC Radio's second adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings", from 1981, presents Saruman much as in the books. Smith and Matthews report Peter Howell's performance as Saruman as "brilliantly ambiguous ..., drifting from mellifluous to almost bestially savage from moment to moment without either mood seeming to contradict the other". Saruman is played by Matti Pellonpää in the 1993 television miniseries "Hobitit" that was produced and aired by Finnish broadcaster Yle. In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films