Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in Peter Jackson's movies, says he's excited to see how Amazon's Lord of the Rings series interprets J.R.R. Tolkien's other writing on Middle-earth. Mortensen was a late replacement in the role of Aragorn, also called Strider and Elessar, but ended up inhabiting the character who becomes the King of Gondor in a way that has made the character an icon of cinema. Jackson's trilogy was a box office phenomenon, and the final movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, won a record 11 Academy Awards, sweeping the 2004 Oscars ceremony.
After a disappointing trilogy of films based on Tolkien's prequel, The Hobbit, Jackson moved away from Middle-earth. Still, fans are eagerly anticipating a Lord of the Rings TV series by Amazon Prime Video. The show will be set in the second age, 3,000 years before the movies and books, so there is scope to tell a wide variety of stories. The series is currently shooting in New Zealand, which also doubled for Middle-earth in Jackson's movies, features a large ensemble cast, and the talents of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona at the helm for at least the first two episodes.
Now, speaking to GQ, Mortensen says that he is "excited" to watch the Lord of the Rings show for two reasons. First, he thinks it will be interesting to see how the show interprets the work of Tolkien. Secondly, he says that Bayona is a "good director," which he believes is reason alone to watch the show. You can read his full comments below:
Yeah, directed by a Spanish director, [J. A.] Bayona. Yeah, I'm interested to see what they do. They've been shooting that in New Zealand. Bayona is a good director, so it'll probably be worth watching. I'll be curious to see what they do, how they interpret Tolkien. I don't know how much the Tolkien estate has allowed them to use.
Mortensen isn't the only star from the movies to have discussed the value of the show. Elijah Wood, who played Frodo, said last year that he's "super fascinated" by the show, though the original Lord of the Rings star thinks Amazon's show's title is misleading. Despite quibbles about the show's name, both Mortensen and Wood's enthusiasm to watch the series is proof of The Lord of the Rings' enduring popularity and appeal. If even the actors who spent three years of their lives working on the movies are excited to watch it, it's sure to hold appeal for fans too.
And Amazon will have to make sure fans tune in in their millions. The tech giant dropped $250 million to acquire the rights to a Lord of the Rings show from the Tolkien estate, and there are reports that the show's budget will exceed $1 billion, making it easily the most expensive ever made. If the show is to succeed, it will need to be a hit on par with HBO's Game of Thrones, something many streaming companies have tried and failed to achieve. But at least they can be assured of Mortensen's support when the show is finally released.
Source: GQ