The New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Fixes a Peter Jackson Mistake with Leo Woodall’s Casting- By Repeating a Divisive Error From ‘The Hobbit’

by

Jamie Dornan, known for his role in the Fifty Shades of Grey films, will be playing Aragorn in The Hunt for Gollum. It’s an unexpected choice, but now that it’s announced, it makes perfect sense – Dornan physically resembles the character and is well-suited to follow in Viggo Mortensen’s footsteps (hopefully without any foot injuries!). Most importantly, he’s a talented and charismatic actor who can undoubtedly deliver a great performance.

It appears Andy Serkis’s upcoming film, The Hunt for Gollum, will stay true to the style of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies rather than closely adapting the books. The return of Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, and Serkis himself confirms this direction. Interestingly, this consistency with the films is surprising because Serkis typically voices all Lord of the Rings characters in his audiobooks to match the movie actors – except for Aragorn. Many expected Serkis to cast Leo Woodall as a more adventurous version of Aragorn as portrayed in the novels. While Woodall is joining the cast, he’ll be playing a different part within Aragorn’s story.

Leo Woodall’s Casting Makes Up For the Dúnedain’s Absence in Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’

The first teaser for the upcoming film, Hunt for Gollum, revealed that Leo Woodall will be joining the cast as a new character named Halvard. While Halvard is original to the film, he’s based on the world J.R.R. Tolkien created. He’s one of the Dúnedain – descendants of the ancient Númenoreans who still live in Middle-earth – making him related to Aragorn, and he’ll be helping him track Gollum. This will be the first time audiences have met another Ranger in the movies, giving more insight into the background of Aragorn as seen in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Let’s quickly review the Dúnedain. Originally, they were known as the Edain – Men who fought with the Elves against the first great evil, Morgoth, in Middle-earth’s First Age. As a reward, they received a blessed island kingdom called Númenor, where they lived long lives and gained great wisdom. This is the civilization seen in Amazon’s The Rings of Power. After Númenor was destroyed, their descendants established new kingdoms in Middle-earth, becoming the Dúnedain of Arnor and Gondor. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, both kingdoms have weakened. The Dúnedain of Arnor have dwindled to a small group of Rangers, and Gondor is governed by Stewards, with the original blessings and long life granted by the Valar fading over centuries.

Aragorn, being descended from royalty, lives a remarkably long life. Boromir also lives longer than most Men, though not to the same extent. The show isn’t portraying Aragorn as the only Ranger or the sole royal descendant of the Dúnedain. Characters like Imrahil, the Prince of Dol Amroth – a royal with ancestry tracing back to Númenor – demonstrate this, as he helps Gondor during the War of the Ring. Halbarad represents the wider group of Rangers who support Aragorn. Leo Woodall’s character seems to be inspired by Halbarad, with a slight name change likely to avoid confusion with the character Halbrand from The Rings of Power.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh likely left characters like Tom Bombadil out of their original films to keep the story moving at a good pace for the big screen. Now, with the new Lord of the Rings films – including the one Stephen Colbert is involved with – they have a chance to explore those parts of Tolkien’s world more fully. While those characters didn’t fit the speed of the first trilogy, they’re still important for building a complete and detailed Middle-earth.

‘The Hunt for Gollum’ Repeats a ‘Hobbit’ Trilogy Problem

The issue with The Hunt for Gollum isn’t a lack of an interesting story, but rather that it’s too short to be a full-length movie. It’s disappointing to see Peter Jackson and his team potentially repeating the mistakes of the Hobbit trilogy by stretching a concise story into an epic film and adding new characters to fill it out.

Okay, as a huge Tolkien fan, I’m cautiously optimistic about some of the character choices in the new show. It sounds like Leo Woodall’s character might be a blend of different Ranger types from the books, which is a clever way to approach it. And Kate Winslet’s Marigol? I’m really intrigued by the idea she could be connected to Smeagol’s backstory – maybe even his grandmother, a leader of the Stoor Hobbits! Honestly, that’s way better than what they did with Legolas and Tauriel in The Hobbit films – forcing a romance that just didn’t feel right. Peter Jackson took some liberties with the source material, sure, but he didn’t create entirely new major characters. This new show, and The Hobbit movies, really show us that straying too far from Tolkien’s writing is a risky move.

Read More

2026-04-16 00:33