'The Hunt for Gollum' Faces Its Biggest Challenge Yet: Recasting Viggo

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum already has massive headwinds working against it, and until now, the biggest one was “Why?” What’s the point here? The stench of The Hobbit Trilogy is still fresh in the air, and while nobody seems to be watching it, Amazon is almost three seasons deep into The Rings of Power. Toss in director and star Andy Serkis not being shy about his love for AI, and the whole production has the makings of another cash grab disaster.

However, there’s been a glimmer of hope that Viggo Mortensen might return as Aragorn along with all the absolute sex he brought to the role in the original LOTR trilogy. If that man didn’t awaken something inside of you, you are legally dead. Go see a coroner.

Well, in case you missed the headline, that hope is now gone. Serkis has officially confirmed that Mortensen will not be swinging his sword Aragorn- or Eastern Promises-style in case some people had some very wild hopes here. (This a family movie, folks.)

Via ScreenRant:

I don’t know what’s out there at the moment, but I know there’s a lot of speculation, but let’s just say we are recasting the role and we are on the way to finding someone.

As for who the hell could possibly fill Viggo’s boots, Vladimir star Leo Woodall is reportedly the top contender to play a young Aragorn. For those of you with rich full lives that don’t involve pouring a billion articles into your eyes every hour on the hour, The Hunt for Gollum will take place between The Hobbit and the original LOTR trilogies, so it tracks that our hero will be just a lad.

I’ll leave you to look into these eyes and decide whether Liv Tyler would give up immortality to bone this. That’s really the foundation of Middle Earth. Tolkien himself told me in a dream. Or maybe it was C.S. Lewis? Look, I can’t keep track of how many literary figures whisper me secrets from beyond the veil. It happens a lot.