It looks as if the mainstay Elven characters of Lord Elrond and Tauriel will need to be recast or omitted completely in Warner Bros. ‘ upcoming prequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. In 2024, British actor Hugo Weaving was interviewed by GamesRadar about returning to The Hobbit as Lord Elrond of Rivendell, following his appearances in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy. Weaving was pretty blunt about his intention not to return due to his age.
“Elrond is meant to be immortal and I’m aging. Elrond is one of the few characters, I think there’s only three or four of them, who spans through The Silmarillion, Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. But even when we went back to reshoot certain parts of Lord of the Rings, I was aware I was older than I was before. And shooting stuff on The Hobbit was starting to get slightly silly. I loved being a part of that franchise but I have absolutely no plans or desires to be a part of it anymore.”
It would be interesting if the studio already had a younger Aragorn and possibly Arwen in mind for a recast of Elrond. Will Poulter (The Bear, GOTG Vol. 3) was originally cast as a younger Elrond in Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power before dropping out. Poulter looks like a spitting image of a young Hugo Weaving; it’s uncanny. It would be funny if Warner Brothers circled back and cast Poulter in the role, given his interest in the character back in 2019.
Another actor that will not be returning is Evangeline Lilly (Lost, Ant-Man) as the Sylvian elf Tauriel. Just this week, she confirmed on Instagram that she wasn’t “invited” back to this film, but that she did visit New Zealand during pre-production. Her character was never in the original novels and was added to The Hobbit films by the studio as a forced love triangle between Legolas and Kili the Dwarf. While many fans kinda despise her, she was cool as a skilled Mirkwood scout in The Desolation of Smaug before her silly love story in The Battle of the Five Armies took over. As The Hunt For Gollum is expected to end in Mirkwood, it technically makes sense that her character would be present alongside Legolas (played by Orlando Bloom) and King Thranduil (played by Lee Pace). However, actress Evangeline Lilly had a traumatic brain injury last year on vacation and has hinted at retiring from acting altogether (via Variety). It would probably just be easier not to have the character in the film at all. Production begins this May back in New Zealand.
Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is slated to hit theaters on December 17th, 2027
