Peter Jackson’s ambitious, big-budget adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was a huge gamble back at the turn of the century when there was no guarantee that audiences would turn up to see one fantasy epic. However, the risk obviously paid off as The Lord of the Rings trilogy went on to become a critically acclaimed box office smash.
Casting each character in the trilogy proved to be difficult, as Jackson had to find actors to bring literary icons to life in a way that would satisfy long-time fans without alienating new ones. Plenty of actors were considered for each role before the eventual casting was decided on.
Perfectly Cast: Viggo Mortensen As Aragorn
Aragorn is one of the coolest characters in the trilogy and to really sell the character, Peter Jackson needed to find an actor who could convincingly play the hardcore Strider. But he found that just that in Viggo Mortensen.
Even though Mortensen has given acclaimed performances in Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, and Best Picture winner Green Book, Aragorn remains his career-defining role.
Almost Cast: Nicolas Cage
When the development of The Lord of the Rings movies was in its earliest stages, Daniel Day-Lewis was offered the role. He turned it down, but since he was Peter Jackson’s first choice, the director continued to bombard him with offers. While Jackson was chasing Day-Lewis, the studio approached Russell Crowe, who couldn’t make the shoot due to scheduling conflicts with A Beautiful Mind.
Nicolas Cage was offered the role next but turned it down because he didn’t want to make the massive time commitment required to shoot the trilogy. Eventually, Stuart Townsend was cast, but was deemed too young and was fired, replaced by Viggo Mortensen two days before shooting.
Perfectly Cast: Liv Tyler As Arwen
Arwen is only a minor character in the source material, but Peter Jackson gave her a more substantial role in the movies as she saved Frodo from the Black Riders.
This was a tricky role to play because there’s an ethereal element to Arwen, but Liv Tyler nailed it in all three Lord of the Rings movies.
Almost Cast: Uma Thurman
The role of Arwen was initially offered to Uma Thurman, but she turned it down as she was pregnant at the time. After she gave birth, she and her then-husband Ethan Hawke were up for the roles of Faramir and Éowyn.
Thurman turned down the role to focus on raising her baby. Hawke did initially accept the role offered to him but ended up dropping out.
Perfectly Cast: Sean Bean As Boromir
Originating one of the most popular memes of all time and establishing his career-long tradition of playing characters who die gruesomely long before the end of the story, Sean Bean made Boromir memorable despite his relatively brief presence in The Lord of the Rings.
Even after Bean has played Ned Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones – the lead role at the beginning of the series – Boromir might still be his most famous character.
Almost Cast: Liam Neeson
Peter Jackson’s original choice to play Boromir was actually Liam Neeson, but he turned it down because he didn’t want to play another character who died in the first movie of a trilogy like Qui-Gon Jinn in the Star Wars prequels.
Before Sean Bean landed the part, Tolkien fanboy Bruce Willis lobbied for the role of Boromir, but it’s unclear if Jackson even gave him an audition.
Perfectly Cast: Ian McKellen As Gandalf
Ian McKellen is one of the greatest actors in the world and his performance as Gandalf is iconic. He was required to deliver long monologues, full of exposition about Middle-earth and the One Ring. In the hands of a lesser actor, it could’ve come out as jibberish.
But McKellen sells the weight of each monologue. When he’s explaining a grave threat to Bilbo, the power of the words comes through because of McKellen’s commitment.
Almost Cast: Anthony Hopkins
At around the same time, Ian McKellen was offered the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and the role of Swanbeck in Mission: Impossible II. Since McKellen wasn’t a Tolkien fan and hadn’t read the books, he didn’t have a preference between the two roles. While McKellen was deliberating, Peter Jackson offered the role to Anthony Hopkins.
McKellen chose to do Lord of the Rings when he found out John Woo wanted him to sign onto Mission: Impossible II without reading a script, which he doesn’t like doing, Coincidentally, Hopkins ended up playing Swanbeck instead.
Perfectly Cast: Elijah Wood As Frodo Baggins
Elijah Wood isn’t a typical blockbuster leading man. Usually, an action-packed big-budget trilogy like The Lord of the Rings will revolve around a musclebound superman committing impossible feats of heroism to get the audience jazzed up.
But Frodo Baggins is a different kind of protagonist. A lot of his conflict is internal as he’s the one carrying the One Ring to Mordor, and Wood gives a poignant, cerebral performance in the role.
Almost Cast: Paul McCartney
After A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, the Beatles were under contract with United Artists to make one more movie for the studio. Having all been fans of Tolkien’s work as kids, they wanted to star in an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. The band wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct, but he felt the book was too dense to be adapted into a single film.
Before the project was scrapped, Paul McCartney was set to play Frodo, Ringo Starr was set to play Sam, George Harrison was set to play Gandalf, and John Lennon was set to play Gollum.