Why Viggo Mortensen hasn’t done a franchise movie since Lord of the Rings

Viggo Mortensen was already an established actor prior to playing Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but his career was certainly propelled to new heights. While many actors would use the success of a major franchise to jump to other franchise movies, Mortensen didn’t take that path.

While speaking with Vanity Fair, Mortensen was asked why he never made another franchise movie after Lord of the Rings. The actor explained that it’s not because he’s opposed to the idea; he just hasn’t been presented with one that caught his attention.

“I don’t really look for or avoid any kind of genre or any size budget. I just look for interesting stories,” Mortensen said. “It doesn’t matter to me what the genre is or what the budget is or who’s making them. I would never do a movie just because so-and-so is directing it. It has to be about the story. And if I think I’m right for the character, that always comes first.“

Mortensen continued: “That goes for franchises. If somebody came to me with X movie, the third part or the ninth part, and I thought it was a great character and I wanted to play that character and I thought I had something to contribute, I’d do it. I’m not against it. But they’re not usually that good. I mean, to me, they’re not usually that well-written. They’re kind of predictable. I mean, of course, there’s always the issue of if I run out of money.“

It’s possible that Mortensen could return to the Lord of the Rings franchise with the upcoming Gollum movie. The project, which is set to be directed by Andy Serkis, is expected to take place during the timeline of The Fellowship of the Ring. Serkis has teased that “characters we recognize” might be coming back, with the most likely candidates being Gandalf and Aragorn. Both Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen have expressed a tentative willingness to return, but Mortensen recently said it would have to make sense.

“I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard,” he said. “Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually. I like playing that character. I learned a lot playing the character. I enjoyed it a lot. I would only do it if I was right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now and so forth. I would only do it if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise.“