Jamie Dornan has been cast as Aragorn in The Hunt for Gollum. Yes, the same Jamie Dornan from the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. It’s a choice I never would have thought of, but one that seems all too obvious now that it’s been revealed, as the actor looks the part to fill Viggo Mortensen’s legendary shoes, though hopefully without the broken toes. More importantly, Dornan obviously has the talent and the charisma to do the job justice.
Rather than exploring a more book-accurate version of Aragorn, it’s clear that Andy Serkis’s The Hunt for Gollum’s direction will look to align with Peter Jackson’s original film trilogy, further establishing the cinematic canon. Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, and, of course, Serkis himself, returning, further solidify this. The consistency with Aragorn is strange, given that in Andy Serkis’s audiobook renditions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, the would-be King of Gondor is the only character whose voice the actor doesn’t model off the respective film actor. I expected Serkis to cast actor Leo Woodall to attempt the bolder, more-intrepid version of the character depicted in the novels. That said, Leo Woodall has joined the film’s cast, but he’ll be fulfilling a different component of Aragorn’s mythos.
Leo Woodall’s Casting Makes Up For the Dúnedain’s Absence in Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’
As revealed by the new Hunt for Gollum teaser, Leo Woodall has joined the film’s cast, playing a character known as Halvard. Though Halvard is an original character for the film (more on that later), his presence is rooted in Tolkien’s mythology. He’s one of the Dúnedain, a cultural group descended from the Númenoreans still living in Middle-earth, making him kin with Aragorn, and he’ll be joining him on the titular “hunt for Gollum.” For the first time in the movies, audiences will meet another “Ranger,” providing some clarity about Aragorn’s reputation in The Fellowship of the Ring.
First, I’ll quickly recap who the Dúnedain are. In the First Age of Middle-earth, the Edain were a group of Men who fought alongside the Elves to defeat the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. As a reward, the Valar (deities of Middle-earth) granted them an island kingdom, and a blessing that provided them long-life and knowledge, thus becoming the Númenoreans who are depicted in Amazon’s The Rings of Power. After the Downfall of Númenor, further descendants formed realms in Middle-earth: the Dúnedain of Arnor and the Dúnedain of Gondor. By the timeline of The Lord of the Rings, both kingdoms have suffered. The Arnor have been reduced to the group of Rangers in the North, while Gondor is ruled by the line of Stewards, and the bloodlines and gifts of the Valar have diluted over millennia.
As a descendant of royalty, Aragorn still boasts a lengthy lifespan. Boromir, on the other hand, still has a longer lifespan than the normal Men of Middle-earth, but not by much. Unlike in the films, Aragorn isn’t the only Ranger, and he’s far from the only royal Dúnedain. A character named Imrahil, for example, is the “Prince of Dol Amroth,” a royal descendant of a noble house with lineage dating back to Númenor, who comes to the aid of Gondor during the War of the Ring. The Rangers are represented by Halbarad, who brings a group to Aragorn’s aid. This could be who Leo Woodall’s character is inspired by, given the similarities in name, with the subtle change made to avoid confusion with The Rings of Power’s Halbrand.
As for why Peter Jackson and producer Fran Walsh decided to leave these characters out of his film, the likely reason is that he consistently attempted to streamline the story for cinematic purposes. This resulted in several character omissions, including the likes of Tom Bombadil. The upcoming Lord of the Rings films, including Stephen Colbert’s, are giving Jackson and Walsh the opportunities to revisit these glossed-over areas of Tolkien’s stories. Regardless of whether they fit the original movie trilogy’s pacing, every brick is essential to the construction of Middle-earth.
‘The Hunt for Gollum’ Repeats a ‘Hobbit’ Trilogy Problem
The problem with The Hunt for Gollum has never been that it’s not a compelling story, but that there’s not enough story to compose a feature film from. One would hope Peter Jackson and his team would understand what went wrong with the Hobbit trilogy, but similar issues appear to be taking ship with the new film. A brief story is being developed into an epic feature film, and in order to fit that form, original characters are being developed to supplement the story.
The silver lining is that Leo Woodall’s character may be an amalgam of the Rangers, drawing loosely from characters in the book. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet’s character, Marigol, seems like she’ll be related to Smeagol’s flashbacks, possibly as his grandmother who ruled the Stoor (breed of Hobbits) settlement he lived in. This is much better than arbitrarily bringing Legolas into the story and creating a flat love interest for him in the form of Evangeline Lilly’s Tauriel, but there are still lessons to be learned here. The original Peter Jackson trilogy took its creative liberties, but there weren’t any prominent original characters, while The Hobbit and The Rings of Power demonstrate the risks of diverting too much from Tolkien’s writing.
