Variety recently asked Orlando Bloom if he’d be interested in reprising his role as Legolas in future ‘Lord of the Rings’ live-action projects like Andy Serkis’ ‘The Hunt for Gollum.’
“Oh, man, those things are amazing. Yeah,” the actor shared during the chat. “I don’t know how they’d do it. I guess with AI you can do anything these days. But if Pete [Peter Jackson] says jump, I say, ‘How high?’ I mean, he started my whole career.”
Bloom first played the Elven archer in Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy in the early 2000s and returned for 2012-2014’s ‘The Hobbit’ films, where technology helped him look younger. He is now in talks to appear in Serkis’ upcoming prequel.
“I really don’t know what [they are planning],” the actor explained. “I did speak to Andy, and he did say they were thinking about how to do things. I was like, ‘How would that even work?’ And he was like, ‘Well, AI!’ and I was like, ‘Oh, OK!’ It was a pretty magical time in my life, and it’s one of those things where there’s not a downside to it.”
Other actors from the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films are also expected to return for the 2026 project. Ian McKellen confirmed last week that he received an offer from the filmmaker to reprise his role as Gandalf.
“Enthusiasm for ‘The Lord of the Rings’ shows no sign of abating,” he told The Big Issue. “I’ve just been told there are going to be more films and Gandalf will be involved and they hope that I’ll be playing him.”
But the 85-year-old actor is uncertain if he will be able to return to the franchise by the time production begins because of his age. Though ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ has a creative team in place, a production schedule has yet to be announced.
