{"id":49106,"date":"2026-05-02T07:35:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=49106"},"modified":"2026-05-02T07:35:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:35:37","slug":"viggo-mortensen-approves-of-jamie-dornan-aragorn-recast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=49106","title":{"rendered":"Viggo Mortensen Approves of Jamie Dornan Aragorn Recast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Andy Serkis has said that original Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen has given his blessing for Jamie Dornan to take over the role in <u>The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Serkis, who famously played Gollum in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and is tapped as director on the new prequel film, spoke about the decision to recast an iconic character during a recent conversation on <u>Happy, Sad, Confused<\/u> with Josh Horowitz. When asked how Dornan landed the part, he teased that the crew is &#8220;not far off shooting&#8221; and doesn&#8217;t want to give too much away about the cast.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">However, Serkis was able to confirm that, despite fans calling for Mortensen to pick up his sword back up, the original actor believes Aragorn is in safe hands.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;Other than that, we&#8217;re thrilled that Jamie&#8217;s doing it,&#8221; Serkis added. &#8220;I mean, you know, we&#8217;re absolutely thrilled, and by the way, so is Viggo.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The journey to the announcement of a new king has mostly unfolded in the last month. Although Mortensen said he <u>would be interested in reprising his role in The Hunt for Gollum<\/u> back in 2024, Serkis spilled the beans <u>that Aragorn would be recast<\/u> during an interview with <u>Screen Rant<\/u> at the beginning of April.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It was a head-scratcher for fans, to say the least, as it was announced soon after that much of the original The Lord of the Rings cast would be returning for the new movie. While Serkis, Elijah Wood, and Ian McKellen had been tapped to reprise their roles as Gollum, Frodo Baggins, and Gandalf, respectively, it was <u>revealed<\/u> that Dornan would take over as Strider.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">The Lord of the Rings Movies in (Chronological) Order<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"&lt;h3&gt;1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)&lt;\/h3&gt;&#10;The only potential confusion in the Lord of the Rings-Hobbit timeline comes from the fact that The Hobbit trilogy is set 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, despite being released a decade later.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;Chronologically, the story kicks off with 2012\u2019s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which sees Martin Freeman take on the role of a younger Bilbo Baggins (played by Ian Holm in the LotR trilogy). Gandalf \u2013\u00a0one of several characters whose stories run through both trilogies \u2014\u00a0recruits Bilbo to join Thorin (Richard Armitage) and Company to help reclaim the Dwarven kingdom beneath Erebor, aka The Lonely Mountain, that had been sacked by the dragon Smaug. Along the way, Bilbo encounters Gollum for the first time and comes into possession of the One Ring.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2021719738 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;There was a desire for a series of return to Middle-earth movies, and this seems to be a great way in,&#8221; Serkis said elsewhere during the interview. &#8220;To be able to bring some of the cast back, but also, this is a much more intimate story, and a deep-dive and psychological investigation into a character who has become sort of absorbed into the public conciousness in rather a large way. So, it feels like there is a real relevance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The details regarding why exactly Mortensen won&#8217;t return have not been disclosed. Other actors confirmed for the lineup include Kate Winslet as Marigol, Lee Woodall as Halvard, and Lee Pace as Thranduil.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is currently set to come to theaters with a December 17, 2027, release date. While we wait for more updates, you can read about <u>why we think it might be time for The Lord of the Rings to receive a Harry Potter-style reboot<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He&#8217;s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/viggo-mortensen-jamie-dornan-aragorn-recast-hunt-for-gollum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Serkis has said that original Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen has given his blessing for Jamie Dornan to take over the role in The Lord&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[16749,21832,21831,16427,21830,12920,21829],"class_list":["post-49106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-approves","tag-aragorn","tag-dornan","tag-jamie","tag-mortensen","tag-recast","tag-viggo","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}