Cast This: Aragorn

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Throughout THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE TWO TOWERS, and THE RETURN OF THE KING, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and the Fellowship sought to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. Aragorn would fight in the Battle at Helm's Deep and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and after emerging victorious from those battles, he raised an army and marched on the Black Gate in order to draw out Sauron's forces from Mordor, which succeeding in distracting the Dark Lord's attention so that Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee could reach Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring. Following Sauron's defeat, Aragorn was crowned King of Gondor and brought a well-earned peace to the lands of Middle-Earth.

It's quite the tale, more than enough for anyone, but the events of THE LORD OF THE RINGS were by no means the entirety of Aragorn's adventures on Middle-Earth. In fact, TheOneRing.net claimed back in May that the first season of Amazon's upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series may actually focus on a younger Aragorn prior to his involvement with the Fellowship. The Lord of the Rings series, which could cost Amazon well over $1 billion once all is said and done, recently tasked JD Payne and Patrick McKay (STAR TREK 4) with developing and writing the series. "The rich world that J.R.R. Tolkien created is filled with majesty and heart, wisdom and complexity," Payne and McKay said in a statement. "We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Amazon to bring it to life anew. We feel like Frodo, setting out from the Shire, with a great responsibility in our care — it is the beginning of the adventure of a lifetime." While you should probably take Aragorn's potential involvement in the series with a touch of salt at this point, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke has said that although the series won't be remaking the Peter Jackson movies, they also won't be starting from scratch, so "characters you love" will certainly be involved.

Thanks to his Dúnedain ancestry, Aragorn was already 87-years-old as the events of The Lord of the Rings began, and his prior adventures include interactions with Gandalf the Grey, Arwen, and Gollum, as well as participation in several large battles while serving in the armies of King Thengel of Rohan and Steward Ecthelion II of Gondor, so you can certainly see why Amazon could potentially launch the series with his character. Although Peter Jackson has said that he isn't involved with the series, Jennifer Salke has said that they have had conversations with the director about "how much or how little" he would like to be involved. There's also the chance that the production may return to New Zealand to keep the look of Jackson's Middle-Earth franchise alive. "I think we might be in New Zealand. I don’t know, but we’re going to have to go somewhere interesting that could provide those locations in a really authentic way, because we want it to look incredible," Salke said. "There’s no shortage of ambition for the project. We’ll go where we need to go to make it happen."

As for who could fill Viggo Mortensen's shoes and play Aragorn in the series, well, let's see who we can come up with. If we lived in a world in which Aidan Turner (Poldark) wasn't already involved in the LORD OF THE RINGS franchise thanks to appearing as Kili in Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT trilogy, I'd certainly be throwing his name out there, but since he doesn't seem to be an option, I'll toss out a few other suggestions to get you started. Viggo Mortensen was hugely successful at portraying Aragorn as wise beyond his years, and from his very first appearance, you could sense decades of history behind those eyes, so we need an actor who is able to do the same, all while putting their own touch on the character. Dan Stevens (APOSTLE) has been making a name for himself by choosing interesting projects in the years after his departure from Downton Abbey, and he certainly has what it takes to lead an epic Middle-Earth series. I've been a big fan of Ben Whishaw (SPECTRE) since my first introduction to the actor in PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER, and he would be my personal favourite choice to take on the role of a younger Aragorn who is perhaps less certain of his place in the world. For my final suggestion, I'll toss out Jamie Bell (TURN: Washington's Spies), who has a Peter Jackson connection due to his roles in KING KONG and THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN.

Remember, you're free to suggest anyone in the comments, so let your inner casting director run wild!

Previously on Cast This, you were asked to fill the role of Officer Alex J. Murphy, aka RoboCop, for Neill Blomkamp's upcoming sequel to Paul Verhoeven's original film. With Blomkamp's tease that original actor Peter Weller is still the man for the job, many of you were keen to see Weller return, but you had plenty of other great suggestions as well, including Logan Marshall-Green (UPGRADE), Jon Bernthal (The Punisher), and Michael Fassbender (ALIEN: COVENANT).