Hollywood
Viggo Mortensen revealed his sole condition to return as Aragorn in the new Lord of the Rings movies
Aragorn’s actor is interested in coming back to the role for ‘The Hunt for Gollum’, but he’s set a condition related to his age.
A few years ago, when the trilogy based on ‘The Hobbit’ was released, Viggo Mortensen refused to appear in the movies and make a brief cameo or wink to fans like those of Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Elijah Wood (Frodo). The actor explained that his character did not appear in the original book and that there was a reason for this. After all, there was a lapse of 60 years between that story and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and it wouldn’t have made sense. However, Mortensen left the door open to return “if the story is right” and if his character had a relevant role in it.
Well, GQ asked him about that now that ‘The Hunt for Gollum’, a new film based on Tolkien’s universe, has been announced. The new film will explore the story of Smeagol and will delve into his transformation and all the parts of his journey that are yet to be told. Among them is a fragment with Aragorn that is mentioned in the novels and tiptoed over in the films. A plot in which Gandalf and Strider pursue the creature to prevent him from revealing information to Sauron about Frodo and the One Ring. Would he be willing to come back for something like that?
“Sure. I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard. Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually,” said Mortensen. “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 clear that they have not told him anything about the story since the actor seems to be unaware that ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ is a prequel. Taking into account that Viggo Mortensen is 65 years old and Ian McKellen is 85, it is likely that both would have to be rejuvenated like Harrison Ford in ‘Indiana Jones’, by using current technology and visual effects. Ford, who has always confessed to being an enemy of this type of technique, ended up admitting that he couldn’t believe how good the result had been, so we’ll see if Mortensen and McKellen also agree to go through with them.
The last word will be by Andy Serkis, the actor behind Gollum, who will once again step into the character’s shoes, but this time will also be the director behind the cameras (advised by Peter Jackson who will only be in charge of production tasks). When questioned about the issue, Serkis assured that “it is a difficult question to answer.” “I don’t commit to anything. We are at a very early stage of planning. There will be characters we know and others we don’t.” Will he consider recasting Aragorn and Gandalf?
