“Aragorn will always be Viggo”: Jamie Dornan gets honest about taking on Lord of the Rings’ most iconic hero

Right, so Aragorn is riding back into Middle-earth, but this time it's not Viggo Mortensen wielding the sword. Jamie Dornan – yes, him from The Fall and, less impressively, Fifty Shades – is taking up the mantle for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Brave man, stepping into boots that still have Mortensen's muddy footprints all over them.

There's pressure when you try to follow in those footsteps, I've been asked to take on a super iconic role, and I'll do my absolute best. But for me, Aragorn will always be Viggo, and only Viggo. His performance is one of my all-time favourites, and I feel honoured to try and capture even a little bit of the energy he originally brought to the character.

Dornan was pretty frank with L'Officiel Italia – he basically said there's no chance he's going to outshine Mortensen, and he isn't even trying. Can't blame him, really. Supposedly, the studio did toy with the idea of roping Mortensen back in and digitally de-ageing him (because that always goes well), but in the end, they sensibly chose to recast. Dornan said he doesn't have even the tiniest urge to 'do it better' than Mortensen, which is probably for the best.

Now, not everyone is wedded to the old guard. Leo Woodall, who plays a fellow Dúnedain ranger named Halvard, reckons Dornan completely owns the role. He went so far as to claim that, for him, Aragorn is now Dornan. That's a nice vote of confidence, though I suspect the fanbase might take some convincing.

New Faces, Familiar Names

For those keeping score, The Hunt for Gollum is set just before and during The Fellowship of the Ring. Production has been going on for months (there were some leaks from set not long ago), and apparently, filming is about to wrap. This time out, the real standout is Andy Serkis: not only is he getting back into grimy character as Gollum/Smeagol, but he's actually directing the whole thing. Multitasking, Hobbit-style.

It's not just a parade of newcomers either:

• Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey
• Elijah Wood is back as Frodo Baggins
• Lee Pace reappears as Thranduil (he of the fabulous eyebrows)
• Anya Taylor-Joy joins as Seren, a Sindar Elf from the Woodland Realm
• Kate Winslet is playing Marigol, who runs a Hobbit-adjacent settlement

If you're hoping for more soon, the film is due in cinemas on 17 December 2027. And they're not stopping there: another film is apparently bubbling away with the working title Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. Oddly enough, for that one, Steven Colbert (of US late-night TV) is on script duties.

The Hunt for Gollum lands in cinemas December 2027.