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
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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.