Warner Bros announced that Jamie Dornan has been cast as Strider in The Hunt for Gollum. Given that the idea of casting someone other than Viggo Mortensen in the role has been a little divisive, how does everyone feel about this update?

I think Dornan is a good actor and will probably be a fine Aragorn, but he's also set up for failure because a lot of fans won't accept it, given how iconic the original movies and Mortensen's performance are. I think the bigger issues with the movie will be its story than its cast, but it is also weird to have Aragorn be recast but several other actors coming back, that's gonna be jarring

I kinda feel bad for Dornan. He's walking into an impossible situation. Even if he's good, he's not gonna be as good as Viggo.

I agree with James. I'm not 100% sure how they're gonna make this an interesting movie? It's about Gandalf and Aragorn trying to find Gollum before Sauron can torture him, right? But the Lord of the Rings trilogy exists. So what's the pitch? "Come see your favorite LOTR heroes embark on a failed mission"?

5 hours ago, James Hunt said:

I think Dornan is a good actor and will probably be a fine Aragorn, but he's also set up for failure because a lot of fans won't accept it, given how iconic the original movies and Mortensen's performance are. I think the bigger issues with the movie will be its story than its cast, but it is also weird to have Aragorn be recast but several other actors coming back, that's gonna be jarring

All of this. He could deliver the performance of the century, but no one is excited about this movie, and no one really has any expectations that it'll be ok at best.

4 hours ago, ChrisA90 said:

I kinda feel bad for Dornan. He's walking into an impossible situation. Even if he's good, he's not gonna be as good as Viggo.

I agree with James. I'm not 100% sure how they're gonna make this an interesting movie? It's about Gandalf and Aragorn trying to find Gollum before Sauron can torture him, right? But the Lord of the Rings trilogy exists. So what's the pitch? "Come see your favorite LOTR heroes embark on a failed mission"?

Exactly this. Like, I don't the idea of the story I just think it's a weird choice since we go into it knowing that they fail.