Another new rumor alleges that Viggo Mortensen will not reprise his role as Aragorn in Andy Serkis’ upcoming The Hunt for Gollum film and that the character will be recast.
Justin Sewell on TheOneRing YouTube channel shared during the channel’s ToRN Tuesday livestream, “We can confirm. 110% confirm based on some conservations I had over the weekend with real people, not just anonymous names on the internet on Tumblr or 4Chan, with real people that this week, as we speak, this week auditions are taking place in London for Aragorn.”
“So Aragorn is being recast,” he added. “Auditions are happening in London and New Zealand. But this week they’re in London.”
Sewell is not the first to claim that Aragorn is being recast. Caleb Williams at Knight Edge Media previously reported that was the case back at the beginning of December.
Williams shared at the time, “Today, we at Knight Edge Media have learned exclusively that the character of Aragorn will be recast with a younger actor in the upcoming Lord of the Rings spin-off film, The Hunt for Gollum.”
Mortensen had previously expressed openness to reprising his role. When asked about returning to it for The Hunt for Gollum, he told GQ in May 2024, “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.”
About 6 months later in December 2024, the film’s producer Philippa Boyens shared that the production had been in contact with Mortensen to reprise the character. She told The Playlist, “Honestly, that’s entirely going to be up to Viggo, collaboratively and we are at a very early stage.”
“I’ve spoken to Viggo, Andy [Serkis] has spoken to him, Peter [Jackson] 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,” Boyens continued. “I know Andy wants to work with him, but also, we don’t see this as like, using A.I. [technology], this is about a digital make-up, and whether Viggo does it or will entirely depends on how good the script is.”
“And he doesn’t have a script yet. So to be fair to Viggo, let’s see if we write a good enough role and that he can find enough in it to see that it’s a performance he wants to take on. After that, it’ll be between Viggo and Andy of how that is achieved,” she concluded.
The role of Aragorn is likely to be a major role in the film given the source material the film has to adapt. In The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien detailed the story about the hunt for Gollum with Gandalf informing Frodo, “Light, light of Sun and Moon, he still feared and hated, and he always will, I think; but he was cunning. He found he could hide from daylight and moonshine, and make his way swiftly and softly by dead of night with his pale cold eyes, and catch small frightened or unwary things. He grew stronger and bolder with new food and new air. He found his way into Mirkwood, as one would expect.”
Gandalf then informs Frodo that he did indeed see Gollum in Mirkwood, “‘I saw him there. … but before that he had wandered far, following Bilbo’s trail. It was difficult to learn anything from him for certain, for his talk was constantly interrupted by curses and threats.”
After recalling the manner of Gollum’s curses and threats, he told Frodo, “But from hints dropped among the snarls I gathered that his padding feet had taken him at last to Esgaroth, and even to the streets of Dale, listening secretly and peering. Well, the news of the great events went far and wide in Wilderland, and many had heard Bilbo’s name and knew where he came from. We had made no secret of our return journey to his home in the West. Gollum’s sharp ears would soon learn what he wanted.”
When asked why Gollum did not make it to the Shire, Gandalf said to Frodo, ” I think Gollum tried to. He set out and came back westward, as far as the Great River. But then he turned aside. He was not daunted by the distance, I am sure. No, something else drew him away. So my friends think, those that hunted him for me.”
As for who those friends are, Gandalf regaled Frodo, “The Wood-elves tracked him first, an easy task for them, for his trail was still fresh then. Through Mirkwood and back again it led them, though they never caught him. The wood was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.”
Next, Gandalf explains to Frodo how he let the trail go cold, “But at the western edge of Mirkwood the trail turned away. It wandered off southwards and passed out of the Wood-elves’ ken, and was lost. And then I made a great mistake. Yes, Frodo, and not the first; though I fear it may prove the worst. I let the matter be. I let him go; for I had much else to think of at that time, and I still trusted the lore of Saruman.”
However, with the help of Aragorn he was able to pick it back up again, “And my search would have been in vain, but for the help that I had from a friend: Aragorn, the greatest traveller and huntsman of this age of the world. Together we sought for Gollum down the whole length of Wilderland, without hope, and without success. But at last, when I had given up the chase and turned to other paths, Gollum was found. My friend returned out of great perils bringing the miserable creature with him.”
“What he had been doing he would not say,” Gandalf said to Frodo. “He only wept and called us cruel, with many a gollum in his throat; and when we pressed him he whined and cringed, and rubbed his long hands, licking his fingers as if they pained him, as if he remembered some old torture. But I am afraid there is no possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way, step by step, mile by mile, south, down at last to the Land of Mordor.”
Finally, Gandalf informed Frodo that Aragorn captured him after he had left Mordor, “When he was found he had already been there long, and was on his way back. On some errand of mischief. But that does not matter much now. His worst mischief was done.”
He also informs Frodo that Sauron learns from Gollum that the One Ring is likely in the Shire, “through him the Enemy has learned that the One has been found again. He knows where Isildur fell. He knows where Gollum found his ring. He knows that it is a Great Ring, for it gave long life. He knows that it is not one of the Three, for they have never been lost, and they endure no evil. He knows that it is not one of the Seven, or the Nine, for they are accounted for. He knows that it is the One. And he has at last heard, I think, of hobbits and the Shire.”
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Let the betting begin! Will Aragorn be cast as a woman, a Black man, or a Black woman?
Fantastic breakdown of Gandalf's recount in Fellowship. The thing is, Aragorn's role as a tracker in this hunt isn't just setup for the plot btw, it's probabyl the purest expression of his Numenorean heritage before he accepts the crown. I've been thinking alot about how a younger actor might convey that kind of weathered competence without Mortensen's gravitas, since tracking Gollum from Mirkwood to Mordor and back requires someone who can embody decades of rangering experience.