Rumor: 'The Hunt For Gollum' Will Feature A Young Sméagol

A new rumor alleges that the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum film will feature a young Sméagol.

Caleb Williams at Knight Edge Media, who previously reported that the film will recast Aragorn after Viggo Mortensen decided to pass on the movie, reports that a casting call has gone out for a young Sméagol.

Specifically the production team is looking for boys ages 8 to 10 years old for the role.

Additionally, Williams shared that another casting call had gone out for an 8 to 10 year old girl to play a friend of young Sméagol.

This casting is another major red flag for the film as it suggests the film will devote significant screen time to flashbacks or new scenes depicting his early life, village, friends, or family. None of these events were written about by Tolkien meaning it would require substantial original invention, which risks feeling like fan fiction rather than faithful adaptation.

The biggest reason this is a red flag is that it appears the production will try to make Gollum a sympathetic character rather than the pitiable one that he is and that Tolkien quite clearly described him as thus.

In Letter 181 to Michael Straight, Tolkien wrote, “Gollum was pitiable, but he ended in persistent wickedness, and the fact that this worked good was no credit to him. His marvellous courage and endurance, as great as Frodo and Sam's or greater, being devoted to evil was portentous, but not honourable. I am afraid, whatever our beliefs, we have to face the fact that there are persons who yield to temptation, reject their chances of nobility or salvation, and appear to be 'damnable'. … The domination of the Ring was much too strong for the mean soul of Sméagol. But he would have never had to endure it if he had not become a mean son of thief before it crossed his path. Need it ever have crossed his path? Need anything dangerous ever cross any of our paths? A kind of answer cd. be found in trying to imagine Gollum overcoming temptation. The story would have been quite different!”

It could also show him as a victim of circumstance rather than a being who chose evil and persisted in it. Furthermore, it could blur the line between understanding suffering and condoning harm. It can create a false empathy as Bishop Sheen so eloquently described the phrase in the 60s:

There are the social slobberers who insist on compassion being shown to the muggers, to the dope fiends, to the throat slashers, to the beatniks, to the prostitutes, to the homosexuals, to the punks so that today the decent man is practically off the reservation. This is the false compassion.

And this is a legitimate fear as writer and producer on the film Philipa Boyens already confirmed that it would depict the story from his perspective rather than from Gandalf and Aragorn’s view point as Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of the Ring.

She told Empire, “It’s a specific chunk of incredible untold story, told through the perspective of this incredible creature.”

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