Viggo Mortensen has weighed in on the possibility of returning for the new Lord Of The Rings film focusing on Gollum.
Last month, it was confirmed that Warner Bros. is working on a number of projects set in Middle-earth, the first of which is a 2026 film tentatively titled Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
Mortensen, who played Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s original trilogy of films, has now addressed the possibility of returning as the character in the new film, saying he would do it if it was “right for the character”.
“I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard. Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually,” he told GQ.
“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.”
The Hunt for Gollum will likely see Andy Serkis reprise his role as Gollum from the trilogy, with the actor also expected to direct the project.
Original director Peter Jackon is set to produce alongside creative partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.
Upon the announcement of the project, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav revealed they were “now in the early stages of script development” for new Lord Of The Rings films, which will “explore storylines yet to be told”.
News of potential new films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works first emerged last year after Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema struck a deal for “multiple” films.
The original trilogy was released between 2001 and 2003, and went on to gross nearly $3billion globally. It was followed by The Hobbit trilogy, which was released between 2012 and 2014 and also proved a huge financial success.
Lord Of The Rings is also continuing on the small screen with Amazon Prime Video’s The Rings Of Power, which began in 2022 and will air its second season from August.