‘The Lord Of The Rings’ cast say they would “jump” to return for new spin-off movies

11 April, 2025

The original cast of The Lord Of The Rings movies have said they would be willing to return to the franchise.

Last year, it was revealed that a new batch of films in the franchise was coming which will “explore storylines yet to be told” starting with The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum.

Earlier this week, the original cast members Liv Tyler (Arwen), John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee), and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) appeared at a panel at AwesomeCon in Washington DC and were asked whether they would return.

“I’d just do anything. I write to [LOTR screenwriters] Fran [Walsh] and Philippa [Boyens] all the time,” Tyler said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, is there any chance we’re going to need Arwen back?'”

She added: “It was such a gift to our lives. It’s so hard to sum it up in words, but it was such a profound gift. I would do anything to be able to see it again, feel it again, but we live it in our hearts and our minds now.”

Bloom was also keen to make a return. “I always think that if Pete [Jackson] says ‘Jump,’ I say, ‘How high?'” he joked. “It’s funny because I think the elves go through so much of this world so many times because they’re ageless.

“I was in The Hobbit, and it was really interesting revisiting the world. It was so different from Rings as an experience. It was a beautiful time, but this idea of kind of going back is like… ‘Absolutely, who wouldn’t want to go back to that place?'”

Astin meanwhile wasn’t so sure. “The idea of doing Sam again… When we did it the first time, I had no idea what the relationship of the literature was to that character. To me, it was all about what we were doing and trying to understand the ideas; just connecting on an emotional level,” he said.

“Now, after 25 years of having people come and talk about what it meant and how it helped in their life, how they got past a hard time and it brought their family together, and all of the millions of things that get said? I wonder what that would be like to try and go into a performance where you’re supposed to be centred and present and focused on what you’re doing, with that kind of [pressure]. I don’t know what that would be like.”

Meanwhile, Rhys-Davies joked: “[I’d do] anything as long as I don’t have to put that full prosthetic on again.”

Peter Jackson, the filmmaker behind the original trilogy, is producing the first upcoming movie  – The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum alongside Boyens and Walsh. It is set to be released in cinemas in 2026.

It was also recently also confirmed that it will not be split into two films.

News of the new LOTR projects arose 2023, when Warner Bros. announced that studio leaders Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy had made a deal to create “multiple” movies based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels.

The post ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ cast say they would “jump” to return for new spin-off movies appeared first on NME.