Middle-earth fans are quite excited about Andy Serkis’ return to the director’s chair for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The plan sounded simple enough. Bring back the gang. Let them chase the raspy little fish-obsessed menace again. You’ve already seen Sir Ian McKellen hint he’s game for more Gandalf. And Elijah Wood is still the ultimate Hobbit hype man. Even Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom are waiting for their calls to come through. So what happened to Viggo Mortensen?
For a while, everyone, including writer Philippa Boyens, held onto hope. “Honestly, that’s entirely going to be up to Viggo, collaboratively, and we are at a very early stage,” she said last year. “I’ve spoken to Viggo, Andy has spoken to him, Peter has spoken to him, we’ve all spoken to each other and honestly, I cannot imagine anyone else playing Aragorn, but it will be completely and entirely up to Viggo.” Recasting Aragorn was always going to be playing with fire.
Yet here we are. Knight Edge Media says the studio has decided to cast a younger actor. Mortensen, now 66, was semi-open to returning, but the timeline of this story creates complications. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum takes place just before The Fellowship of the Ring. Twenty-plus years since the original trilogy hit cinemas is a long time when you’re trying to look like a rugged thirty-something ranger still lurking around the wilds of Middle-earth.
Boyens even addressed the age problem while explaining how other returning cast could still fit the era. “We don’t see this as like, using A.I., this is about a digital make-up,” she said. The idea wasn’t completely off the table for Mortensen. He just needed a script solid enough to make it worth stepping into the boots again. And that script didn’t arrive in time.
New Line Cinema has talked to multiple actors, though no names have leaked yet. Production aims to kick off in New Zealand in mid-2026, with a 2027 release. That gives fans a year and a half to adjust to the idea of a new heir of Isildur. You might not love the news, but the journey to destroy the One Ring was always full of surprises. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will have a big one.
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