The story of The Lord of the Rings is not over yet. Warner Bros. will be coming out with a new bunch of live-action films centered on Gollum. The working title of the first film is The Hunt for Gollum and it will see Andy Serkis returning to reprise his role as the titular character. As updates keep coming for the film, Viggo Mortensen revealed that he would consider returning to his character on a few conditions.
Viggo Mortensen played the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and was one of the fan-favorite characters in both the books and films. Fans fell in love with his portrayal of Aragorn for a number of reasons and would love to see him return to the role. As for Viggo Mortensen, the actor had a pretty optimistic, yet realistic response to the possibility of his return.
Viggo Mortensen On His Return to Aragorn
As per Variety, The Hunt for Gollum is currently in the early stages of script development and according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, will “explore storylines yet to be told.” Andy Serkis will reprise his role as Gollum and will also serve as the film’s director. Needless to say, we are pretty damn stoked!
Viggo Mortensen joined GQ magazine for a discussion about his recent film, The Dead Don’t Hurt, which he directed, produced, wrote, and starred in. He was also the film’s music composer! Quite the one-man army, isn’t he?
And while the publication had him, there was no way The Hunt for Gollum wasn’t going to be brought up. When asked if he would consider reprising his role of Aragorn in the film, which includes the character in the storyline, Mortensen replied,
Sure. I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard. Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually. I like playing that character. I learned a lot playing the character. I enjoyed it a lot. I would only do it if I was right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now and so forth. I would only do it if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise.
It is quite evident that Mortensen loves Aragorn too much to do him any kind of injustice. He deeply cares about the character and wouldn’t want to jump back into the role if he wasn’t the right choice for it. No wonder why the fans love him so dearly!
Viggo Mortensen Said ‘No’ to The Hobbit for a Similar Reason
When The Hobbit trilogy was announced, many expected to see Mortensen join the cast, despite the character not being mentioned in the books. A little creative adjustment never hurt anyone, did it? However, the idea never became a reality.
Even though he was offered the role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first film in the trilogy, he turned it down for the sake of Aragorn. Sure, being a part of The Hobbit franchise would’ve been good for his career but he simply didn’t think that it was the right decision. Why? Well, hear it from Mortensen himself.
Talking to The Guardian back in 2013, Mortensen revealed that one of the film’s producers asked him if he was interested. He stated,
Before they started shooting, back in 2008, one of the producers did ask if I would be interested. I said, ‘You do know, don’t you, that Aragorn isn’t in The Hobbit? That there is a 60-year gap between the books?’
He did add that while he hadn’t seen An Unexpected Journey, he was intrigued to see how Peter Jackson put the new and improved technology to good use and how he managed to make a trilogy out of little source material.
Well, we are waiting to see if The Hunt for Gollum would satisfy his conditions and allow him to return.
The Hunt for Gollum will be released in theatres in 2026. Meanwhile, stream The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies on Max.
