Summary
- Andy Serkis says
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
is still in early development and it’s too soon to confirm the return of characters/ actors from Peter Jackson’s trilogy. - Serkis leaves the door open for Gollum to interact with some familiar faces over the course of his journey.
- Since it’s been more than 20 years since
The Lord of the Rings
trilogy, it would be a challenge to seemlessly bring back actors from Jackson’s trilogy.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum director Andy Serkis shares a cautious response regarding whether any other familiar Lord of the Rings characters will show up in the movie. After Peter Jackson brought the world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth to life in the early 2000s with his acclaimed trilogy, several other projects in the franchise have moved forward, including The Hobbit trilogy and Prime Video’s The Rings of Power series. Now, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum has been announced, with Serkis reprising his role as Gollum and directing.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Serkis touches on the status of The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and whether audiences can expect any actors from Jackson’s films (including The Hobbit trilogy) to show up. While it’s still too early to say definitively one way or another, the filmmaker certainly leaves the door open for some familiar faces to return. Check out Serkis’ full comment below:
“That’s a difficult question to answer right at this moment in time, because we’re really in the nascent stages of what it is exactly where we’re doing, and where the story’s going to take us. So I don’t want to commit anything right now.
“I mean, because it’s so raw and so raw and wriggling, and we are just literally having very early state script discussions and ideas of exactly where and how we’re going to drop anchor with the character and his journey and how he is or comes into contact with other characters, and the characters that we know and don’t know. So still, I would hate to say anything that’s going to commit us at this point, because it’s literally all up for grabs.”
Should LOTR Actors Return For The Hunt For Gollum?
Bringing Back Beloved Characters Comes With Some Big Problems
It has not yet been confirmed exactly when The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum takes place, but Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring features a story point that could serve as the basis for the film. Although it’s not included in Jackson’s adaptation, Tolkien’s source material features a brief storyline in which Gandalf and Aragorn hunt Gollum to keep him from revealing details about Frodo and the Ring to Sauron. If the movie does touch on this story, it certainly makes the return of familiar characters very likely.
Related
10 Lord Of The Rings Characters Who Can Return In The Hunt For Gollum
Major characters including Aragorn, Gandalf, Galadriel, and more could return for The Hunt for Gollum, depicting another quest to find the One Ring.
While Gandalf and Aragorn may return, it’s unclear whether actors Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen would reprise their roles. It’s been more than 20 years since The Return of the King, and McKellen is now 84 while Mortensen is 65. If The Hunt for Gollum takes place before this film, there would obviously be a clear continuity problem in terms of the actors’ appearances. McKellen may have gotten away with reprising his role as Gandalf for The Hobbit trilogy, but it might be a stretch to do the same all these years later.
The entire The Lord of the Rings cast were crucial to bringing the story to life, and it’s hard to imagine the roles being played by anyone else. Recasting would come with a fair share of problems, but so too would digitally de-aging actors. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, then, faces some key challenges when it comes to bringing back beloved characters and their respective actors.
Source: Deadline