Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum: we have a new Aragorn, and everything else we know

So who’s playing Aragorn, paragon of non-toxic masculinity? Viggo Mortensen, now 67, will sadly not be returning — though Aragorn will canonically be in his 60s-70s during this time period, he doesn’t look a day over 40. Instead, Jamie Dornan will be Aragorn. It should also be noted that the character will be referred to as Strider, his Ranger name (hiding his identity as Aragorn, son of Arathorn, rightful king of Gondor). We’re optimistic!

Also, Kate Winslet has joined the cast as a character called “Marigol.” Watch this space.

Kate Winslet

I heard Stephen Colbert was involved somehow. What’s that about?

Colbert has been a nearly lifelong Tolkien fan and he’ll be working on the next movie after The Hunt for Gollum, tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. As Colbert revealed in a surprise video announcement with Peter Jackson from about three weeks ago, he’d found himself re-reading a handful chapters early on in The Fellowship of the Ring — “Three Is Company” (chapter three) through “Fog on the Barrowdowns” (chapter eight) that did not appear in the 2001 adaptation.

“I thought, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story,” Colbert said. “Could we make something completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?” He and his son Peter, a screenwriter, are working on it together.

Per EW, a Warner Brothers press release about the movie described the plot as follows: “Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo — Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”

Sounds like we’ll be getting some flashbacks — and some Tom Bombadil action.

Stephen Colbert