For the followers of the lore of Lord of the Rings, Elijah Wood aka Frodo Baggins was burdened with the responsibility to tend to the fate of Middle-earth and its occupants. It was a journey that traversed Tolkien’s landscape, charted territories unknown to man, and overcame hurdles that would have defeated even the bravest soldiers. To Wood’s hobbit, this journey entailed everything.
In fact, the resounding love that still remains trapped within the memories of the people has woken Warner Bros. up. The studio now refuses to let the franchise slip away after its successful run in the 2000s as fans gear up for a reboot of Peter Jackson’s beloved trilogy.
Elijah Wood Grows Wary of the New Lord of the Rings Reboot
Elijah Wood helped bring Peter Jackson’s vision for the Lord of the Rings franchise alive via the spectacularly constructed trilogy of films. The proprietary right to the films and the IP rings the strongest when it comes to the blue-eyed actor. Perhaps that is the reason why it seems so strange and uncomfortable for him to face the news of the Warner Bros.-sanctioned reboot.
For Elijah Wood, however, the news was not so easy to digest, even though the reasoning made sense from a commercial Hollywood perspective:
“I’m fascinated and I’m excited. I hope it’s good. I’m surprised – I don’t know why I’m surprised because, of course there would be more movies. Obviously at the core of that, is a desire to make a lot of money. It’s not that a bunch of executives are like, ‘Let’s make really awesome art.’ And, again, not begrudging anybody because, of course, it is commerce. But great art can come from commerce. So those two things are not mutually exclusive.
But Lord of the Rings didn’t come out of that place. It came out of a passion for these books and wanting to see them realised. And I hope that that is ultimately what will drive everything forward with whatever these subsequent movies are. I just hope that it’s the same motivating factor at its core, whenever they hire a screenwriter and a film-maker – that it is with reverence for Tolkien’s material and enthusiasm to explore it.”
The need for a reboot of Peter Jackson‘s classic trilogy makes the work of Elijah Wood seem redundant and its essence utterly lost to the ebb and flow of time. Despite the iconic status of the three films, the years have made it so that an entirely new generation seeks to find not just the mythology of Tolkien’s work but also relevance, representation, and reliability.
Lord of the Rings Reboot Signals the Doom of Hollywood?
In rare cases, adaptations like Andy Serkis‘ Planet of the Apes franchise and Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune have hit the mark in their emotional and creative arcs. But the same cannot be promised for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings which are already beloved classics transcended by time and relevance. A reboot of such established and venerated IPs might just spell the doom of Hollywood rather than revive it for a new demography of fans.
Lord of the Rings trilogy is available for streaming on Max.