New Lord of the Rings Touts Leo Woodall to Fix Peter Jackson's Misstep — Then Repeats The Hobbit's Most Divisive Mistake

Well, here's a casting move I didn't have on my 2026 bingo card: Jamie Dornan has snagged the role of Aragorn in The Hunt for Gollum. Yes, that Jamie Dornan. The same one from Fifty Shades of Grey. At first, it feels a bit out of left field, but now that it's official, he actually looks pretty perfect for it. The hope is he can conjure up the same presence as Viggo Mortensen—just, ideally, without any on-set broken toes.

This new Lord of the Rings movie, helmed by Andy Serkis (who's returning as Gollum and directing), is sticking tightly to Peter Jackson's established movie world. The approach here isn’t about reinventing Aragorn straight from Tolkien’s texts (which might have been riskier, but honestly, kind of interesting). Instead, it's basically an extension of the movies we already know, with plenty of familiar faces like Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood also coming back. So, if you love cinematic continuity above all, this is your moment.

Now, if you’re a Tolkien audiobook nerd, there’s a quirk here: in Serkis’s own narration of The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is pretty much the only big character whose voice Serkis doesn’t directly model after Mortensen’s take. Odd choice, considering how much of the cast is straight from Jackson’s films in this project. Personally, I expected them to go even more off-book for Aragorn—but the bold fan theory pick, Leo Woodall, is in the cast after all. He’s just not Aragorn.

Who’s Woodall Playing, Then?

Meet Halvard—a character invented for this movie, but he’s not just a random insert. He’s one of the Dúnedain, which for anyone who doesn’t memorize Tolkien appendices, means he’s one of the last of the noble “Rangers” who are basically Aragorn’s kind. For once, we’re getting another Dúnedain on screen. This adds a little long-overdue depth to the Ranger mythology, which the original films mostly skipped in favor of keeping the plot tightly packed.

Quick history lesson: back in the day (First Age), a group called the Edain helped the Elves take down Morgoth (the OG Dark Lord). Their reward? The island of Númenor and some pretty cush genetic perks—long life, smarts, and all that. Fast forward to the timeline of the films, Númenor’s gone, most of the Dúnedain are a shadow of their former glory, and Aragorn is one of the last royal survivors. In Jackson's movies, Aragorn feels like the Lone Ranger of his people, but the books mention others, like Halbarad, who rides into battle with him in Return of the King. Woodall’s Halvard seems to be inspired by these background heroes, just with a name tweak (maybe to avoid confusion with Amazon’s Rings of Power and its character Halbrand).

Why didn’t we get Halbarad, Imrahil, and the rest when Jackson was adapting the books? Simply put, pacing. Streamlining the cast is what made those movies zippy, but also meant plenty of Tolkien’s recurring characters drew the short straw. (See also: Tom Bombadil, a.k.a. most fans’ favorite walking enigma.)

The Pitfalls: Stretching a Footnote into a Feature

Here’s my big question: is there actually enough story here? The Hunt for Gollum has always worked better as a side quest than a main plot, which is why stretching it into a full movie sounds worryingly familiar to, say, the Hobbit trilogy’s "let's just keep adding stuff until it’s epic" approach. So to fill two hours, they’re spicing things up with new characters—including Halvard—and expanded roles for others.

A quick rundown of new faces:

• Leo Woodall: Halvard, the new Dúnedain/Ranger sidekick, likely channeling bits of forgotten lore figures.
• Kate Winslet: Playing Marigol—a character probably tied to Gollum/Smeagol’s Hobbit ancestry, maybe even his grandmother from the dark corners of the family tree.

Honestly, these additions could either add some much-needed flavor, or just bloat the story like the whole Tauriel-Legolas subplot (which, let’s be honest, didn’t have many fans). At least here the invented characters seem to have some roots in Tolkien’s universe, which is more than can be said for some additions elsewhere. Still, there's always the risk of losing the spark that made Jackson’s originals sing by drifting too far off script.

So, to recap, we end up here: Jamie Dornan as Aragorn, new blood in the Ranger department, Andy Serkis running the show, and Peter Jackson’s legacy held together by familiar faces—plus some creative liberties that could go either way. We’ll see soon enough whether The Hunt for Gollum gets us the magic of Middle-earth, or just a well-cast stroll through the appendices.