New Lord of the Rings movie will recast Aragorn, Andy Serkis says

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will see a new actor stepping into the live-action role of Aragorn, actor-director Andy Serkis confirmed in an interview with Screen Rant. With 67-year-old Viggo Mortensen reportedly not returning for the film, which is set between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, a younger ranger is yet to be cast for the iconic role.

Serkis confirmed to Screen Rant that the filmmakers behind The Hunt for Gollum are recasting the role, and "on the way to finding someone." That confirmation follows speculation from earlier this week that Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood may have inadvertently confirmed which actor has been crowned the new Aragorn.

While Serkis says that casting for the 2027 film is still underway, Wood drew attention for comments he made on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Thursday, when he appeared to say that English actor Leo Woodall (The White Lotus, Prime Target) would be the new Aragorn. But Wood's comments may have been misinterpreted — he's being extremely careful about saying who is or isn't in The Hunt for Gollum, after all. That includes whether Wood himself will return to the role of Frodo. Here's what went down.

On Happy Sad Confused, host Josh Horowitz broached the topic of who and who wouldn't return from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films for Hunt for Gollum. "Beyond the returning folks, it's a tough act to follow for someone to play Aragorn," Horowitz said. "But Leo Woodall, if that's true..."

"Right, that is true," Wood said. "Those are tough boots [to fill], man. That is tough. I can't imagine. But that's gonna be great."

Wood's acknowledgment of how challenging it will be to live up to Mortensen's portrayal of Aragorn was interpreted by some Lord of the Rings fans as confirmation of Woodall's involvement. The 29-year-old actor is an avowed Lord of the Rings fan, after all; he told BAFTA organizers in an interview that his first cinema experience was seeing The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and that Jackson's trilogy is his favorite movie series of all time. In a profile in The Guardian, Woodall said he liked to role-play as a child, "pretend[ing] to be Aragorn from Lord of the Rings."

None of that confirms Woodall's involvement, of course, but it would certainly signal his interest in stepping into the role of Aragorn for at least one film.

Serkis and the other folks involved with The Hunt for Gollum have been cagey about casting. We only know with certainty that Serkis will be reprising his role as Gollum and that Kate Winslet has been cast in an unannounced role. Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in Jackson's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films, has said that both Gandalf and Frodo would be in The Hunt for Gollum, but there's no direct confirmation that that means those roles will be played by McKellen and Wood.

We'll surely know more soon. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is coming to theaters on Dec. 17, 2027. Peter Jackson is co-producing the new Lord of the Rings spinoff with writing-producing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who also worked on the LOTR and Hobbit movies.

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