Jamie Dornan is taking over Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, but he isn’t trying to surpass Viggo Mortensen. He hopes to carry some of his predecessor’s energy into the role.
Speaking with costar Leo Woodall for an October 19 L’Officiel interview, Dornan acknowledged the pressure. “But for me, Strider will only ever be Viggo,” he said.
Woodall offered a different assessment after working alongside him. “I can say that my Strider is now Jamie Dornan,” he replied. The actors first met over a beer at Wellington’s Cambridge Hotel in June.
Warner Bros. announced Dornan’s casting at CinemaCon in April, as Variety reported. Woodall plays Halvard, a fellow ranger accompanying Strider, while Andy Serkis directs and reprises his role as Gollum.
Serkis Says Mortensen Supports Dornan’s Casting
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Mortensen had previously expressed interest in revisiting Aragorn, whom he played across Peter Jackson’s original trilogy. Asked about the new film by British GQ in May 2024, he said he had not yet heard its story and would have to consider whether the role suited his age.
“I would only do it if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise,” Mortensen said. He recalled enjoying the part and learning from the experience of playing it.
On the April 30 episode of Happy Sad Confused, Serkis declined to explain the recasting in detail when host Josh Horowitz asked about Mortensen. He did say the filmmakers were delighted to have Dornan, adding, “And, by the way, so is Viggo,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
The New Film Finds Strider Living in the Wilderness
The studio’s casting announcement names Dornan’s character as Strider, the identity Aragorn uses before taking his place as king. Serkis told Den of Geek in May that this was how the character understood himself at that stage of his life, rather than through his royal lineage.
“He’s living in the wilderness. He’s a doomed lone ranger,” the director said. The story follows the search for Gollum before the main events of the original trilogy, with Gandalf seeking information about the ring that threatens Middle-earth.
Serkis has also described the project as an intimate psychological exploration of Gollum. In the Happy Sad Confused conversation, he said Tolkien repeatedly returned to the character and that there was still more to examine beyond his appearances in the earlier movies.
Halvard, meanwhile, was created for the new film rather than drawn from Tolkien’s books. At the New York premiere of Tuner on May 20, Woodall told PEOPLE that joining the production fulfilled a childhood ambition. He had watched the original films repeatedly while growing up, but declined to reveal details about his character’s part in the story.
Dornan’s Daughters Have Already Visited Their Father as Strider
Dornan brought his wife, composer Amelia Warner, and their three daughters to New Zealand. The children had seen the original films before visiting the set and watching their father in costume. During his conversation with Woodall, they were building forts nearby while he spoke from a home office.
He said moving the family so far from London brought some guilt. They had previously spent five months in Australia while he made The Tourist, with the children attending school there. For 12 12 12 in Budapest, he instead flew home every weekend.
The Production Combines Motion Capture With Miniatures and Prosthetics
Warner Bros. marked the start of filming with a July 14 video showing Serkis arriving on a motion-capture stage. Dressed for his performance, he checks what the crew will shoot first, then crouches into Gollum’s familiar posture and calls for action. The clip also shows a crew setting up amid New Zealand’s mountains, as Dark Horizons documented.
Serkis has said the production is also using miniatures and more practical prosthetics for its orcs, with set designers from the earlier movies returning. In his Den of Geek interview, he described combining established techniques with newer methods while trying to connect the visual styles of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies.
Returning actors include Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins and Lee Pace as Thranduil. Kate Winslet plays Marigol, while Anya Taylor-Joy joins the cast as Seren, an elf.
Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing. Walsh and Boyens share screenplay duties with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, according to the original Warner Bros. announcement.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is scheduled to open in theaters on December 17, 2027.