Gollum and Gandalf won’t be the only characters from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy to appear in The Hunt for Gollum. Co-writer/producer Philippa Boyens recently shared that Aragorn plays a prominent part in the movie and that the LOTR brain trust is hoping for Viggo Mortensen to reprise the role.

In an interview with The Playlist, Boyens confirmed that Aragorn would appear in The Hunt for Gollum whether Mortensen agreed to return or not, although the hope is for the fan-favorite actor to reprise the role. “Honestly, that’s entirely going to be up to Viggo, collaboratively and we are at a very early stage,” she shared. “I’ve spoken to Viggo, Andy [Serkis] has spoken to him, Peter [Jackson] has spoken to him, we’ve all spoken to each other and honestly, I cannot imagine anyone else playing Aragorn, but it will be completely and entirely up to Viggo.”

The Hunt for Gollum Would De-Age Viggo Mortensen

If Mortensen does return, Boyens revealed that they would use digital makeup instead of A.I. to make Mortensen appear younger. “I know Andy wants to work with him, but also, we don’t see this as like, using A.I. [technology], this is about a digital make-up, and whether Viggo does it or will entirely depends on how good the script is,” she continued. “And he doesn’t have a script yet. So to be fair to Viggo, let’s see if we write a good enough role and that he can find enough in it to see that it’s a performance he wants to take on. After that, it’ll be between Viggo and Andy of how that is achieved.”

I cannot imagine anyone else playing Aragorn, but it will be completely and entirely up to Viggo.

In the event Mortensen cannot reprise the role, Boyens shared that the LOTR brain trust hoped that the actor would still be heavily involved in handing Aragorn off to the new actor. “I suspect if he decides he doesn’t want to do it we would still want him to be heavily involved, like how do we hand this character off,” she said. Luckily for Boyens, Mortensen previously shared that he would be interested in reprising the role of Aragorn, but only “if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise.”

The Hunt for Gollum will be the first new live-action installment in Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth franchise since the conclusion of The Hobbit trilogy in 2014. The original trilogy of epic fantasy adventure films — The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) — were based on The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Produced and distributed by New Line Cinema, The Lord of the Rings is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential film series ever made. The trilogy received high praise from both critics and fans, with the three films grossing just shy of $3 billion at the worldwide box office.

Ahead of The Hunt for Gollum, New Line and Warner Bros. will release a stand-alone animated prequel film titled The War of the Rohirrim. Set 183 years before Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The War of the Rohirrim tells the story of the legendary king of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox), after whom the fortress of Helm’s Deep is named, and his family as they defend their kingdom against an army of Dunlendings. Kenji Kamiyama directed the anime fantasy film from a screenplay by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is intended to hit theaters in 2026, although an exact release date hasn’t been announced yet.