The Lord of the Rings’ Aragorn Replacement Officially Confirms Major Production Milestone

2 hours ago 7
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy Image via New Line Cinema

Published Nov 11, 2026, 8:00 PM EST

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 4000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio. 

Sign in to your Collider account

One of cinema's greatest fantasy franchises is gearing up for a long-awaited return. As the first standalone, live-action theatrical release set in the main timeline of Middle-earth since the original trilogy, The Hunt for Gollum will bring global theatergoers back to The Lord of the Rings franchise in explosive fashion, and in the hands of a franchise favorite. Andy Serkis will not only return to play Gollum, but will direct the film in only his fifth directorial feature.

Serkis won't be alone in the original franchise faces returning for The Hunt for Gollum, as Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood reprise their iconic roles as Gandalf and Frodo, respectively, and Lee Pace is returning as Thranduil, who first appeared in 2012's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou have developed the screenplay. But new talent will be blended with old in The Hunt for Gollum, with Kate Winslet cast as Marigol, Leo Woodall as the Dúnedain ranger Halvard, and Anya Taylor-Joy as the elf Seren.

But the biggest casting addition has been Jamie Dornan, who is taking over the role of Aragorn, made famous by Viggo Mortensen. Recently, talking to Entertainment Tonight, Dornan revealed his reaction to the casting. "I cried. I actually cried," he admitted, adding, "It’s like a dream. It’s an absolute dream and an honor to be entering that world in any capacity, let alone playing a character of such significance and such admiration, and that we all love and love what Viggo did with that role in those three films."

Dornan also gave fans a glimpse of life on the set of The Hunt for Gollum, which he called "incredible." He said he was "incredibly honored and had a brilliant time." "I finished like three weeks ago," he continued, adding, "It was an incredible experience, and I hope people welcome our story into that world because a lot of people care about it, and I really realize that. But yeah, hopefully we’ve done a good job of it."

COLLIDER Middle-earth

Personality Quiz

Collider/ Movies/ The Lord of the Rings/ Which Race Do You Belong To

Ten Questions · Five Peoples Which Lord of the Rings Race Do You Belong To? Hobbit · Elf · Dwarf · Man · Orc

Middle-earth is home to many peoples: the courageous, the ancient, the stubborn, the ambitious and the wretched. Ten questions will determine which race truly claims your soul. The answer may surprise you, or it may confirm what you already suspected.

The Five Peoples

🌿Hobbit

🌟Elf

🪓Dwarf

⚔Man

💀Orc

Find Your Race

Stage 1 of 10Comfort

What does your ideal day look like? How we rest reveals as much as how we fight.

AA long meal with good company, a pipe, and absolutely no unexpected adventures. BWalking through ancient forests, composing verse, watching the stars emerge. CDeep underground, the clang of hammer on anvil, crafting something that will outlast me. DTraining, planning, preparing. There is always something that needs defending. ETaking what I want and making sure nobody tries to take it back.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 2 of 10Time

How do you feel about the passing of time? Our relationship with mortality shapes everything we value.

AI have watched ages come and go. Time is a river I observe, not chase. BThe days blur pleasantly. I do not think about it much, and there is always second breakfast. CLife is short. I want to leave something behind: a name, a legacy, a deed worth singing. DTime means little underground. What matters is the work, and the work is never done. ETime is something stronger things take from weaker ones. I intend to be the stronger one.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 3 of 10Instinct

Danger is approaching. Your first instinct is to: Fight, flight, or something in between.

AHide, and hope it passes. I am no hero, and I am fine with that. BStand your ground. Someone has to, and it might as well be me. CFade into the background and observe. Knowledge before action. DCharge straight at it. Hesitation is just fear wearing a sensible hat. EDig in, fortify, and wait. Ground is everything, and you never cede ground.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 4 of 10Treasure

You stumble upon a great treasure. What do you feel? What we desire, and what we do about it, is the true test.

AMy heart swells. This is the work of my kin, and it belongs in my hands. BExcited, but nervous. I would rather it not cause trouble. Can I just leave it? CMine. Obviously mine. Why is this even a question? DBeautiful. Something this ancient deserves to be preserved and admired, not hoarded. EA resource, and resources should serve those with the vision to use them.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 5 of 10Community

How important is community and belonging to you? No race of Middle-earth is truly alone, but some prefer it that way.

AEverything. My neighbours, my village, my people. They are the point of it all. BI cherish my kin deeply, but I feel connected to all living things, not just my own kind. CI will protect my people with everything I have, but I do not need anyone else’s approval. DI prefer a tight-knit clan bound by loyalty and shared toil over any grand fellowship. ECommunity is a pack. You are either dominant or you are used. I know which I prefer.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 6 of 10Ambition

How ambitious are you, honestly? Ambition is neither virtue nor vice. It depends entirely on what you want.

ADeeply. I want to build something great, reclaim something lost, or leave a mark on history. BI seek mastery and perfection, not power over others but excellence in all I do. CHonestly? I mostly just want a quiet life and for things to not go wrong. DCompletely. I want to dominate, and I see no point in pretending otherwise. EAmbitious within my craft. I want to make the finest thing ever made by my people’s hands.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 7 of 10Nature

Where do you feel most at home in the natural world? Middle-earth is vast, and every race has its place within it.

AAncient forests, still pools, places where the world feels oldest and wisest. BRolling green hills, good soil, somewhere you can grow things and watch them thrive. CUnderground. Caves, mines, tunnels. The dark does not bother me. It is where things are made. DOpen plains, mountains, the kind of landscape that makes you feel the weight of history. EBlasted wastelands, smoke, ash. Somewhere harsh enough to keep soft things away.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 8 of 10Strength

What kind of strength do you most respect? Every race defines strength differently, and they are all at least a little right.

AThe strength to carry on when everything is telling you to stop. BThe strength of stone. Immovable, reliable, tested by pressure and time. CThe strength to lead others and bear the cost of that responsibility. DGrace under pressure. Calm, precise, and lethal when it needs to be. EBrute force. Everything else is just philosophy for those who lost.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 9 of 10Legacy

What do you want to leave behind when you are gone? Legacy is the story we tell ourselves about why any of this matters.

ASongs, poetry, beauty. Something that outlasts the memory of who made it. BThe knowledge that my corner of the world was a little safer and kinder because of me. CFear. A reputation that means nobody ever dares come for mine. DA name remembered. A deed that made a difference at a moment that mattered. EA masterwork. Something crafted so perfectly it becomes the standard all others are judged by.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseNext

Stage 10 of 10Truth

Be honest. What do you want most out of life? The truest question always comes last.

APeace. Safety. Good food, good friends, and nobody asking me to save anything. BTo matter. To be part of something larger than myself, even at great cost. CEternity. To witness all ages, to remember everything, and never be forgotten. DDominance. To never again be at the mercy of anyone or anything. EMastery of my craft and the respect of those who know great work from good work.

Press 1 to 5 to chooseReveal My Race

Middle-earth Has Spoken You Belong To

A tie. You walk between two peoples.

🌿 The Hobbits The Shire-folk Heroism does not require ambition, and you are the proof.

You are, at your core, a creature of comfort, community and quiet joy, and there is nothing small about that. Hobbits are proof that heroism does not require ambition, that the bravest heart can beat inside the most unassuming chest. You value good food, warm hearths, close friends and a world that stays largely untroubled by dark lords and quests. When adventure does find you, and it will, you rise to it not because you sought it but because the people you love needed you to. That is not ordinary. That is the rarest kind of courage in all of Middle-earth.

LoyalGroundedUnassumingBraver Than You Look

🌟 The Elves The Firstborn They mistake your depth for distance.

Ancient, graceful, and carrying a weight of memory most mortals cannot fathom, you are one of the Elves. You see the world in its fullness: its beauty, its impermanence, the unbearable ache of watching everything you love eventually fade. You pursue perfection not from pride but because excellence is how you honour the time you have been given. Others may see you as remote or melancholy. They are not wrong, exactly. But they mistake depth for distance. You feel everything, which is precisely why you have learned to carry it so quietly.

AncientExactingObservantMelancholy

🪓 The Dwarves The Stone-born Anything worth doing is worth doing properly.

Stubborn, proud, fiercely loyal and possessed of a work ethic that would exhaust most other races before breakfast, you are Dwarf-kind through and through. You do not ask for approval and you do not offer it cheaply. Your loyalty, once given, is given for life. Your grudges last longer. You love deeply and defend ferociously, and the things you build, with your hands and your sweat and generations of accumulated craft, are made to last. Not for glory. Because anything worth doing is worth doing properly, and you have never once done anything by half measures.

StubbornLoyalExactingImmovable

⚔ The Race of Men The Mortal Kind You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you.

Mortal, ambitious, flawed and magnificent, you belong to the most complicated race in Middle-earth, and that complexity is your greatest strength. Men are capable of cowardice and extraordinary bravery, of cruelty and breathtaking sacrifice, sometimes within the same breath. You feel the urgency of your finite years and it drives you. You want to matter. You want to leave something behind. You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you. Tolkien called mortality the Gift of Men, not a curse but a fire that burns bright precisely because it does not burn forever. That fire is you.

AmbitiousMortalDrivenUnfinished

💀 The Orcs The Broken Kind You have made your peace with a world that is not kind.

Brutal, survivalist and contemptuous of anything that cannot defend itself, you answered with the instincts of an Orc, and there is a certain savage honesty in that. You do not dress up your desires in polite language or pretend you want things you do not. You want power, survival, and to never be at the bottom of any hierarchy again. Orcs are not evil by nature. They were made from something that was once good and broken into this shape by forces they did not choose. What remains is fierce, territorial, and deeply aware that the world is not kind. You have made your peace with that. The question is what you do with it.

TerritorialBluntRelentlessUnsentimental

Your Closest Matches

1

2

3

Quest recorded by COLLIDER Collider.com · Middle-earth

'The Lord of the Rings' Franchise Has Only Just Returned

As the wait continues for the big-budget mainline return to The Lord of the Rings movie franchise, a hugely successful spin-off has finally made a streaming comeback. This week, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returned to Prime Video for its third season. Season 3 finally creates "a story that's finally worthy of J.R.R. Tolkien's sprawling universe," according to a review by Collider's Therese Lacson, although not all responses have been so positive. Four episodes of Season 3 have already been released, with the second half of the season debuting over the next two weeks.

For the latest updates, stay tuned to Collider.

the-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum-poster.jpg

Release Date December 17, 2027

Writers Arty Papageorgiou, Phoebe Gittins, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, J.R.R. Tolkien

Franchise(s) The Lord of the Rings

Read Entire Article