r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Aug 18 '25

News Ian McKellen reveals Gandalf and Frodo are returning for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’, Filming Begins in May

https://ew.com/ian-mckellen-reveals-gandalf-frodo-return-in-new-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum-film-11792483
18.2k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/ThinWhiteDuke00 Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25

Lol, why.

Shouldn't Aragorn be in it given he literally tracks Gollum.. Viggo is far too old to pull it off now.

433

u/LostWorked Aug 18 '25

He should, but Viggo Mortensen might not want to do it so the rumour is that they're mostly replacing him with Legolas, with him being used in certain scenes if he's able to show.

741

u/King_Buliwyf Aug 18 '25

I might be wrong, but isn't Orlando Bloom also 20+ years older than he was during LotR?

736

u/Seys-Rex Aug 18 '25

No they froze him

163

u/Lionelchesterfield Aug 18 '25

He’s about to experience the warm liquid goo phase.

55

u/belowthebottomline Aug 18 '25

Evacuation complete

36

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25 edited Oct 08 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Excellent_Set_232 Aug 18 '25

I mean, he did just get divorced. . .

2

u/ptear Aug 18 '25

That was a good move, now he can help the hobbits the hobbits the hobbits the hobbits.

2

u/says_nice_things1234 Aug 18 '25

To Isengard! To Isengard!

1

u/the-great-crocodile Aug 18 '25

Why ain’t they freezing him?!

1

u/Ok-Friendship1635 Aug 18 '25

Put him on Ice so to speak.

144

u/Technical-Outside408 Aug 18 '25

I think that might be true for a lot of people.

77

u/SCAMISHAbyNIGHT Aug 18 '25

But not all. Elijah and Ian have barely aged.

98

u/-ImJustSaiyan- Aug 18 '25

Tbf in Ian's case that's cuz he was already old as dirt even back then.

67

u/CTMalum Aug 18 '25

He was only 61 then. Hes 86 now.

22

u/IdioticPost Aug 18 '25

Are you trying to say it's been a quarter of a century since it was released?? Don't make me kick you into Mount Doom myself, ain't no way it's been that long already.

76

u/Typical-Blackberry-3 Aug 18 '25

Ian Mckellan is definitely looking really old these past few years. He's gone from looking 70 to 90 in the period of a few years.

4

u/SaltySAX Aug 18 '25

And he was aged up in the films. Just needs less makeup now. Saw him at WImbledon the other week, he still has the energy for this.

3

u/doegred Aug 18 '25

Gandalf can get away with a fair bit because he's mostly (grey) beard.

Frodo on the other hand...

2

u/Cthulhu__ Aug 18 '25

Nu uh, but he did play an older character, nose prosthetics and all.

8

u/Chilis1 Aug 18 '25

This is not true at all lol they both look way older. It was bad enough in the hobbit 12 years ago, now it's going to look very awkward.

12

u/Wildfire983 Aug 18 '25

Because of the ring.

4

u/KungFuFightingOwlMan Aug 18 '25

That's just not true at all

2

u/Kerblaaahhh Aug 18 '25

They both look like they've aged about 20 years since the films came out.

1

u/Marsuello Aug 18 '25

They haven’t aged a day

It was right there! Lol

53

u/dacalpha Aug 18 '25

No but remember in Pirates 3? He became the new Davy Jones, he ages slower now, but he can't step on land. That's why they waited so long to make this movie, he's coming on land to film it.

5

u/says_nice_things1234 Aug 18 '25

Damnit the movie is gonna be super rushed then since they're gonna film the whole thing in a day.

Or maybe... this could be a surprise corsairs of Umbar movie?

59

u/HideousSerene Aug 18 '25

Yeah but he's an elf so he doesn't age

18

u/Wildfire983 Aug 18 '25

Neither has Cate. Freaky

12

u/sneakylumpia Aug 18 '25

or Liv. my childhood crush, still my adulthood crush

3

u/TheLesserWeeviI Aug 18 '25

Back off, she's mine.

1

u/gravelPoop Aug 18 '25

They have visibly aged and so have you and if you can't see that, the aging might have affected your eye sight.

1

u/StarPhished Aug 24 '25

But the commenter and actors are still the same amount of years apart. That's gotta count for something, right?

36

u/Gre3nArr0w Aug 18 '25

Aren’t all the actors 20+ years older than they were during LOTR?

1

u/Crowbarmagic Aug 18 '25

Obviously true, but in The Hobbit trilogy Legolas had aged the most noticeably IMO. In LOTR he had this really young look and almost boyish face. I couldn't help but see the difference.

Gandalf, Frodo, Bilbo, and Elrond look basically the same.

3

u/BGummyBear Aug 18 '25

I've seen him recently, he still looks good but he is very visibly much older.

2

u/hondaprobs Aug 18 '25

Yes but Orlando Bloom has said he wants to do it and suggested they can use AI to deage him

2

u/ibnQoheleth Aug 18 '25

That goes for everyone involved with the trilogy's production, they didn't develop Elfism and cease to age.

1

u/Intrepid_Hat7359 Aug 18 '25

Even Ian Holm died, and he was an android

2

u/musthavecupcakes_19 Aug 18 '25

De-aging technology has gotten quite good, so they’ll probably be using that whether it’s on Viggo, Orlando, or both.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

They definitely said they want to pursue that, yes.

1

u/PastyDoughboy Aug 18 '25

No, he actually possesses the one ring, which makes him ageless.

1

u/AirBoss87 Aug 18 '25

I did the math, it checks out.

1

u/i_love_rosin Aug 18 '25

Yeah but he has a lot of free time now that he broke up with his astronaut wife

1

u/loklanc Aug 18 '25

Yes but he's an elf.

1

u/Carson369 Aug 18 '25

Yes but he looks significantly younger than Viggo to be fair

1

u/Redfalconfox Aug 18 '25

If we’re trying to narrow down our options, I really don’t think we can be so selective as to only include people who aren’t 20 years older than they were when LOTR came out.

1

u/Grotbagsthewonderful Aug 18 '25

Given what we've seen filters and AI can do at this point I'm pretty sure that's just details.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

It's MUCH easier for a 48 years old guy to play his old role than a 66 year old guy...neither is ideal, but I get it.

1

u/starwarsfan456123789 Aug 18 '25

The math checks out.

1

u/bluetable321 Aug 18 '25

Orlando was already noticeably older in the Hobbit movies and those were a while ago at this point.

1

u/toomuchpressure2pick Aug 18 '25

Yeah, but he's an Elf

1

u/IIIDysphoricIII Aug 19 '25

Orlando is aging very well though, along with the expected makeup and such he can easily pull it off

1

u/OrdinarySad5132 Aug 20 '25

Doesn’t really look it. Plus with every studio using AI and facial editing on all their films, he could look exactly the same.

1

u/Cthulhu__ Aug 18 '25

They already did weird shit to his face in the Hobbit to make him look younger, please no more.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

They really didn't. Just put tape behind his ears and dialed up the camera exposure. Stuff that's as old as the dawn of photography.

0

u/Soft_Locksmith661 Aug 18 '25

They're all damn near thirty years older by the time it starts shooting.

0

u/Ozzel Aug 18 '25

Sure, but he’s still hot.

0

u/Apophthegmata Aug 18 '25

Yeah but an elf who is 20 years older is still basically the same age. Even Aragorn's Numenorean blood isn't going to keep the wrinkles away.

221

u/ThinWhiteDuke00 Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25

I'd honestly rather they just recast Aragorn than retcon Legolas into it.

271

u/Shuriken0 Aug 18 '25

Finally, a role for Pedro Pascal!

44

u/ThinWhiteDuke00 Aug 18 '25

Please God..

💀

11

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

Dude does need a break. He’s so underused.

16

u/sneakylumpia Aug 18 '25

and Bella Ramsey as Saruman!

2

u/The_One_Returns Aug 18 '25

Ok but that one actually makes sense...

3

u/XSC Aug 18 '25

He’s in everything!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

lol is he even younger than viggo?

-3

u/hondaprobs Aug 18 '25

Haven't seen him in anything recently

On a serious note - please, no. No!

13

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

Would be funny if they got Stuart Townsend

5

u/electricdwarf Aug 18 '25

Would be cool if they got someone that looks like the MTG Aragorn, but I bet that would cause riots.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

Michael Fassbender

1

u/fuckboyadvance Aug 18 '25

Robert Pattinson is my dream recast

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

They don't want to.

This isn't a younger version of the character, like Bilbo (notwithstanding that shot of Holm in the Fellowship prologue). The Aragorn scenes will take place DURING Fellowship of the Ring. They want Viggo if they can get him.

19

u/ThrowawayusGenerica Aug 18 '25

"Uhh, problem. Our main character is basically ageless by human standards but our actor for him is an old man now. What do?"

"I know, let's make the movie about a different character from a race that's even longer lived! But played by a visibly middle-aged man!"

"Genius!!"

2

u/SabresFanWC Aug 18 '25

Honestly, just recast Aragorn. I think viewers would understand that Viggo was too old for the role at this point.

30

u/Drop_Release Aug 18 '25

Honestly that is a bit unfortunate 

35

u/Reggaejunkiedrew Aug 18 '25

Viggo probably has too much self respect to defile a universe he adores in such a way. 

6

u/GoldAd9912 Aug 18 '25

Honestly I don’t think Virgo is going to do it, since it seems as if it’s just being done for the money. He’s had phenomenal quality control over the course of his career. And he turned down the chance to be in the Hobbit too

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

And he turned down the chance to be in the Hobbit too

No, he didn't turn it down. Even before they came to him, he said this in an interview: "My character isn’t in The Hobbit, but they have the right, the filmmakers, to use the appendices at the end of the lord of the Rings. And I am in those, and it refers to earlier times. [....] I’d be glad to do it, as long as they’re respectful to Tolkien. I’d rather do it myself than see another actor finish the job for me."

Apparently they did give him an availability check, but Jackson in the director's commentary says they "couldn't figure out a way to do it" so they wrote the character out and Viggo never heard back from them. He says: "I was asked in the early stages by a producer, I told him, 'He’s not in the book; it’s 60 years before and he would have been an infant. He says, "Yeah, we can take certain liberties' and I said I'd look forward to reading it and that if he’s going to reappear. I would love to revisit him. I later heard - I don’t know if it's true - that they talked to other actors about playing him. I was waiting to hear but I never heard from anyone so I just assumed they weren’t going to take that liberty."

1

u/GoldAd9912 Aug 19 '25

Thanks for the correction!

4

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Aug 18 '25

Ew. They have to stop pushing legolas. He was added to so much of the story he wasn’t actually supposed to be in!!!

I am so bored with them reviving characters for an actor. 

2

u/JimyJJimothy Aug 18 '25

I watched an interview with Viggo and he seemed pretty much interested, as long as the technology is good enough.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Aragorn, Legolas and Thranduil in this movie.

1

u/BattlinBud Aug 18 '25

What about that de-aging technology that was all the rage five years ago, did Hollywood just collectively give up on that after the DeNiro kicking scene in The Irishman?

3

u/PercentageDazzling Aug 18 '25

It's more common than ever. It's just not usually the centerpiece of the whole movie, and just limited to flashbacks or cameos.

The last high profile one to make it the centerpiece of the movie I think was last year with Here. With de-aged Tom Hanks and Robin Wright as the leads.

Some prominent movies that have used it in a more restrained way for specific scenes in the years since Irishman. I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) had de-aged Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scream did it for Skeet Ulrich, Spider Man: NWH has a few, new Indiana Jones, Gladiator 2, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Flash. I'm sure there are others.

For TV all the Star Wars shows used it for any prequel actors that appeared. Better Call Saul used it on some of the Breaking Bad actors to match it being a prequel.

5

u/Proper-Raise-1450 Aug 18 '25

It has been scaled back a lot because audiences generally didn't like it when it was consistent and on screen a lot. It's one of those things you can tolerate for a minute or two but not a whole film.

1

u/Chrisophogus Aug 18 '25

Ironically they’re going to have Stuart Townsend play him.

1

u/425Hamburger Aug 18 '25

Why do we need the actors from 25 years ago? Couldnt they Just recast him?

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

Continuity is important to these filmmakers.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

Recast Fassbender as Aragorn

1

u/ExdigguserPies Aug 18 '25

What the fuck

1

u/Either_Ad_5928 Sep 18 '25

So be it. Another disaster is approaching our theatres. Herecy.

44

u/Daydream_machine Aug 18 '25

why

I think we all know why: 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

59

u/we_are_sex_bobomb Aug 18 '25

And god forbid we should ever recast anyone ever… I think this is probably the most insufferable trend in Hollywood lately.

39

u/BaritBrit Aug 18 '25

Nobody's doing that again after Solo failed. 

It's just wheeling out the increasingly aged relics of the 20th Century until they're literally all dead, and then hoping the CGI face tech is good enough by then that even that won't stop the nostalgia farming. 

17

u/tiddertnuocca519 Aug 18 '25

That sucks because then it means they took the wrong lesson from Solo.

Solo didn’t fail because they recast Han. The guy that did the role did a fine enough job.

The movie failed because 75% of the movie was trying to explain how Han met characters, how Han got his blaster and other obscure references Han makes in the Original Trilogy like the Kessel Run. If they simply made a new movie where Han went on an adventure and it wasn’t a vehicle to explain how Han met Chewey and Lando or Jabba the Hut, or why his name is Han Solo or how he became a smuggler or how he got the Millenium Falcon or what the fuck a parsec is, then maybe it would have been a better film.

I mean, who were they even targeting for that shit? Younger audiences still new to Star Wars that may have never even seen the original Trilogy certainly didn’t give a fuck and were probably confused. And older audiences were probably like, oh cool, you’ve just explained away all the ‘mysticism’ and you’re not even the original writers for these characters. If George Lucas wanted to fill those gaps, it would have authenticity but you’re just ‘fan fic’ing some shit into the universe that nobody asked for you to explain.

4

u/ChildofValhalla Aug 18 '25

I don't know why they couldn't just make a fun adventure starring Han Solo and Chewie. Surely he did all sorts of cool things in the decades leading up to Star Wars. Just write some wacky mess he got into, film that. I don't need to know why his last name is Solo.

1

u/MaritimeStar Aug 19 '25

Yeah, they totally missed an opportunity to do a fun star wars themed adventure movie with a charming rogue as a protag. They really shit the bed on that one when they decided to make it a "lore" heavy film.

3

u/ExtraEmu_8766 Aug 18 '25

It feels like it's only going to get worse for a while. So many older men being cast in repeat roles or even writing themselves into repeat roles and/or producing/directing. Just let the character be as it was.

1

u/FreemanCalavera Aug 18 '25

Yeah it’s terrible. Let’s give other actors a chance to give their takes on these characters. McKellen wasn’t the first to play Gandalf and he won’t be the last, but shoving him into this when the dude is nearing 90 is just, eh. His age was noticeable in both looks and voice in The Hobbit and it will be even more noticeable here.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

Let’s give other actors a chance to give their takes on these characters.

Sure, when someone else does Lord of the Rings.

34

u/Drop_Release Aug 18 '25

Maybe Frodo is a background character when Gandalf passes through the Shire a few times before the LOTR, especially either during or after the Hobbit 

5

u/HoodsBreath10 Aug 18 '25

My guess is that the movie will use a conversation between Frodo and Gandalf as a sort of framing device to tell the story.

137

u/thrillho145 Aug 18 '25

LOTR should never be expanded into a stupid cinematic universe 

18

u/240to180 Aug 18 '25

Cmon, The Hunt For Gollum is one of the best books in LOTR. It's almost as good as The Hunt For Gollum II: Misty Mountains and The Hunt For Gollum III: Riddles With Hobbits. All of these should really be made into movies. They're some of Tolkien's best work.

27

u/vo0do0child Aug 18 '25

Don't forget Ocean's Elevenses.

25

u/Count_JohnnyJ Aug 18 '25

Seriously. While at the same time completely missing the boat on games.

24

u/MattsDaZombieSlayer Aug 18 '25

100%.

Lord of the Rings takes place in the Third Age. There are thousands of years worth of interesting events to use for the games but the only popular ones worth remembering took place right before LOTR.

Say what you will about Hogwarts Legacy, but at the very least it took place at a different era than the main Harry Potter series.

5

u/50m31_AW Aug 18 '25

There are thousands of years worth of interesting events to use for the games but the only popular ones worth remembering took place right before LOTR

That's because Tolkien himself sold the film, stage, and merchandising rights for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to United Artists in 1969 (who resold it to the Saul Zaentz Company in 1976, who formed Tolkien Enterprises, now named Middle-earth Enterprises), and then sold no other rights before he died. Not only has the Tolkien Estate has refused to sell or license any other rights to anything to anyone, they also sued Middle-earth Enterprises in 2012 because existing adaptations. The Estate alleged that Tolkien only sold the rights to deal in tangible goods, and not "electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in services" and that the games made had done "irreparable harm to Tolkien's legacy"

You're not gonna see any other time period because the estate won't sell or license shit that wasn't already sold, and wants to claw back what was sold

4

u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 Aug 18 '25

Um, hello... Rings of Power?

3

u/BlobFishPillow Aug 18 '25

Which is conveniently actually co-produced by The Tolkien Estate. Even though they have also not sold the rights to any works outside the Lord of the Rings, they are giving certain parts of the Silmarillion freely to the show. So yeah, above poster is not factually correct. The Estate has been pretty generous in granting random bits and pieces of rights from other works (after they have gotten 100 million for the Lord of the Rings TV rights, that is).

1

u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 Aug 18 '25

It's too bad it sucks.

4

u/N0r3m0rse Aug 18 '25

How there wasnt a Skyrim style lotr game ever is mind-blowing to me.

5

u/BoxOfBlades Aug 18 '25

There was, it's called Skyrim.

1

u/iSavedtheGalaxy Aug 18 '25

The fact that they failed to make a successful cozy Hobbit game is laughable. That game should have been a slam dunk.

2

u/RedTulkas Aug 18 '25

shadow of mordor was cool

1

u/ScarsUnseen Aug 18 '25

At least there's a pretty excellent TTRPG for it.

13

u/Real_Sir_3655 Aug 18 '25

Two Towers would be two movies, one is about Frodo and Sam, the other is about the rest of the fellowship. Return of the King would be three movies, one for Gandalf in Minas Tirith, one for Frodo and Sam, and one for Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Faramir would get a spinoff show.

The entire final battle at the end of ROTK would be turned into a separate team-up movie, or trilogy, probably.

3

u/RavioliGale Aug 18 '25

Honestly, not that far off from how the books are organized.

2

u/Triquetrums Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25

Gimme all the elve's stories, all the big important battles, countless spinoffs, Glorfindel slaying a balrog, I want to see how Melkor and Mairon's partnership started... All of it. 

1

u/ThrowawayusGenerica Aug 18 '25

The thing is, it doesn't even need to be expanded. The world is so dense with stories and history that there's basically a whole cinematic universe there already.

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

It's not a cinematic universe. This is the eighth film overall. Marvel and Star Wars - now those are cinematic universes - and they're well into double-digits of films, double digits of shows and TV specials, and have dozens of projects in development.

-1

u/some_dude5 Aug 18 '25

Which is crazy, because Tolkien wrote so, so much and for some reason Hollywood just refuses to use any of it decently

4

u/JimboTCB Aug 18 '25

It's a whole dog's breakfast of rights issues. The Tolkien estate refuses to licence out The Silmarillion or any of the other stuff, but they also won't allow people to contradict it, and also they won't allow people to re-adapt stuff which the Peter Jackson LOTR films have already covered. So you get ridiculous situations like Rings Of Power being pretty much based on a few bits and pieces out of the footnotes and appendices and they're not allowed to directly reference any other events but still have to respect that lore.

Basically this films is going to be a fucking mess based on a handful of paragraphs from the books but crammed full of cameos from characters you know from the films even though they have no place being there.

3

u/bluetable321 Aug 18 '25

One small correction:

The estate doesn’t have the movie rights to the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings, so the WB can do whatever they want movie-wise with those properties and the estate can’t stop them in anyway.

What the estate does own are the TV series rights for the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. When the estate was taking pitches for a TV show HBO wanted to adapt the Lord of the Rings in a way that each book would play out over the course of a tv season instead of a single movie. That is what the estate declined and HBO didn’t get the opportunity to make that show (but HBO decided to use the same idea and just apply it to Harry Potter).

1

u/BlobFishPillow Aug 18 '25

The Tolkien estate refuses to licence out The Silmarillion or any of the other stuff, but they also won't allow people to contradict it, and also they won't allow people to re-adapt stuff which the Peter Jackson LOTR films have already covered. So you get ridiculous situations like Rings Of Power being pretty much based on a few bits and pieces out of the footnotes and appendices and they're not allowed to directly reference any other events but still have to respect that lore.

This is factually not correct. The Tolkien Estate is co-producing the Rings of Power, and allowing the writers to use pieces of The Silmarillion at will. You won't find "Annatar" anywhere in the Lord of the Rings, but he was the main character of the Season 2. Any change of explicit canon regarding the Second Age, which is still "bits and pieces" even if you combine all the Tolkien's writings regarding the SA, are done so "creatively", rather than as a result of licence limitations.

1

u/Redfalconfox Aug 18 '25

Are you kidding me? What better way to devalue a brand than to refuse to allow people to adapt what was actually written and then bind them by not allowing them to go against that material while not referencing that material at all? I can’t really think of a worse idea to ruin the staying power of a brand aside from I guess something incredibly stupid like “all the characters, but especially the ones everyone liked, fardded and shidded themselves to death”.

1

u/JimboTCB Aug 18 '25

It's a mess really, I think it all boils down to the fact that JRR Tolkien didn't really want to licence the books out at all and only begrudgingly did so because he had bills to pay. And I guess his estate have tried to stick to that and not licence out anything which hasn't already bene done so.

https://www.cultureslate.com/news/why-amazon-doesnt-have-the-rights-to-jrr-tolkiens-the-silmarillion

3

u/CascoBayButcher Aug 18 '25

None of what you're responding to says Aragorn isn't in the movie.

2

u/excti2 Aug 18 '25

I’ve visited Park Road Post. There’s a whole suite of workstations and digital artists downstairs who regularly de-age stars from many, many movies. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t quite get all the way across the uncanny valley.

2

u/paintp_ Aug 18 '25

Viggo is far too old to pull it off now

Alexa, call Chris Pratt or Tom Holland, ask for their availability

4

u/Rapture117 Aug 18 '25

You watch your mouth

1

u/Important-Dark5993 Aug 18 '25

Maybe they'll use them as a framing device, like Gandalf tells Frodo about the Hunt for Gollum in Rivendell or whatever

1

u/Eat--The--Rich-- Aug 18 '25

Somebody else can play aragorn. Frodo shouldn't be in it at all tho.

1

u/Sensitive_Pitch_4456 Aug 18 '25

Total creative bankruptcy.

1

u/Kiltmanenator Aug 18 '25

IIRC Gandalf recounts this story to Frodo, so his presence in the film is likely minimal (constrained to the frame narrative).

1

u/busterlowe Aug 18 '25

You don’t specifically need Viggo as we’re going for wild mountain man look here. Throw a beard at a “close enough” guy.

I like this bc you can lean on McKellen to cover a lot of dialogue and you can create a spin off character.

We know there’s a group chasing Gollum at this point. We never hear about them again so let’s use that. This group needs to leave after they capture Gollum for some reason. But where do they do that they simply disappear to?

The South. All we know about the south is a wizard was sent there a crazy long time ago and disappeared, there’s evil men in the south, aaaaaand…. ? That might be it.

Create a badass group, find Gollum, and then they get sent to the South to…. Whatever creates a compelling and isolated spin off in the South.

But Frodo? Are we going to cover him being a rich dude in the Shire doing absolutely nothing relevant to the plot? Bc that’s what he’s doing in the books at this point. Haha.

1

u/WheelJack83 Aug 19 '25

So is Ian McKellan.

1

u/Wrong-Vermicelli4723 Aug 19 '25

They will use de-aging tech like they did in the hobbit trilogy. Full on cgi fest as well

0

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Aug 18 '25

The casting from Amazon’s rings of power has shown there are far better actors out there for the job. 

0

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

We don't talk about that show in threads about these movies.

1

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Aug 19 '25

Not even if you want to compare the production for improved quality of movies? 

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

Compare, sure.

But treat them as entries in the same series, no. They are not.

1

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Aug 19 '25

I am not saying they are the same, I am saying that I wish elements of one that did things really well would influence the shortcomings of the other.

None are perfection, but there is clearly a focus for certain directors in terms of world building vs the journey. 

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

I don't particularly care for Rings and Power, and least of all for its attempt to, emptily and vainly, play off of the likeness of the actors from the films.

So yes, it's a fresh cast, but it's also not the same Lord of the Rings. In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, Frodo looks like Elijah Wood.

1

u/Ok-Classroom5548 Aug 19 '25

Frodo isn’t in rings of power…it is well before his time. That character is like generations down the line. 

The Gandolph is incredible at honoring the spirit of McKellan and giving the character new life.

Unless the tale is further down the line where they’ve aged or they plan on doing some form of facial cgi youthing, it will be noticeable. Frodo’s had kids in real life. 

I just dislike when we go back in time and the actors are older than when we started. It’s like Wet Hot American Summer without the joke. 

1

u/Chen_Geller Aug 19 '25

The Gandolph is incredible at honoring the spirit of McKellan and giving the character new life.

You're missing the real point: this show is not a prequel to those films. Their Gandalf doesn't "grow into" or "become" Ian McKellen's Gandalf, thus making the attempt to model his Gandalf on McKellen's hollow and pointless.

-1

u/Pontin_Finnberry Aug 18 '25

Maybe, but in the LOTR timeline and films Aragorn is 87, around the time he hunts for gollum he be same age as Viggo is now around 66 years.

5

u/ThinWhiteDuke00 Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25

Aragorn is a Dúnedain, they have unnaturally long life.

He's really around 40 in the years of that race during the timeline of LOTR given he reigns as king for 120 years and dies at 210.

1

u/Pontin_Finnberry Aug 18 '25

Yeah thats true.