Another Actor Confirmed For The Hobbit (Spoilers)

Well, I don't want to piss anybody off, so I put this under spoilers. Elijah Wood will be reprising his role as Frodo to set up a framing story for the Hobbit films. I wasn't expecting this and I think it could be cool.

Link

 

Hmm, I wonder where they would set it though? Wood has aged more than 10 years, so towards the ending of ROTK where he's writing down all the stories?

I like it. It's the same actors and same directors, and there was elements within the original story of telling stories, so it's not totally out of the blue.

 

Interesting, since the text of The Hobbit was presented as actually existing in-universe as There and Back Again, Bilbo's memoir of his journey. Are the films retconning it to be Frodo's memoir? Or perhaps Frodo is writing an editor's introduction to his uncle Bilbo's memoir.

 

I think they're doing a prequel framing story where Frodo is hearing the story for the first time.

 

IMHO, it ain't spoilers if it'll happen in the very first minutes of the movie; word will get out at some point and it'll be all over the trailers...

Huh, interesting. I guess. We'll see.

 

Well, there will be people who don't want to know ANYTHING. I don't want to be the one to ruin the living under a rock experience.

 

Interesting, though the inclusing of Cate Blanchette as Galadriel strikes me as even more interesting, as it suggests we might see some development of the conflict between the "Council of the Wise" and Sauron in his earlier incarnation as the Necromancer.

This is alluded to in the Hobbit as the reason for Gandalf's extended absence towards the end of the story as I recall.

Yeah, might as well mark it spoilers, some people are extremely sensitive on the subject

 

Meh. It would be better if he were reprising his Sin City character for The Hobbit.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about this. While it is a nice connection, it seems like they are really reaching to bridge and add stuff that perhaps doesn't belong. I know I've been on a kick but have the confirmation that Fassbender would not be Bard- honestly, he was a good casting option- to find the next the news is that Frodo would be back, is kind of weird.

Will they have a CGI De-aged Viggo Button kid running around Rivendell, too? Will Frodo fall asleep at his chair and have nightmares of Sean Bean, too? I'd rather he just play an ancestor if he's going to be there. Pity John Rhys Davies will never play another dwarf, I think he would be perfect in a familial reprisal.

Is anyone else concerned this news has dropped at the same time with that information about Warners doing the distrubtions and all that? Do you think they required the star of the trilogy make an appearance?

 

I seriously doubt that. The movies would make a billion dollars apiece just with the name The Hobbit.

 

At least it's not Fox making the movie. Don't want to see Lord of the Rings Origins: The Hobbit.

 

That's how I'm assuming they'll be doing it. When I read this story over at TORN, I was surprised how the author went onto to suggest that perhaps this will mean the return of other Hobbits such as Sam, Merry, and Pippin but didn't think of the more obvious implication: if Elijah Wood is returning for a framing sequence, and assuming he's being told the story for the first time, then surely Ian Holm will return, too?

I like to think that my supposition will come true considering del Toro's suggestion (back when he was the director) of having Holm narrate the story.

 

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings IV: The Beginning: The Hobbit

 

There's clearly a number of options as to how they'll handle the set-up, but given that they'll be expanding the Gandalf/Dol Guldur side of things (to some degree or another) it would make the most sense to have Frodo recounting the whole thing (to Sam's kids perhaps?) sometime before he left for the west.

 

From that point of view I wonder if the film will beef up Sauron's role in the story, and possibly Gollum's as well, beyond the initial riddle sequence.

 

As for Aragorn's character while they certainly could use the character (mainly due to the compressed timeline of the filmed version of lord of the rings (where we don't have the large number of years between Frodo being given the ring and Frodo starting out on his quest. And since we do know he did spend time in the area that the Hobbit takes place, I would still prefer to keep Aragorn out of the story.

 

Aragorn would at most be a cameo in the for of some non-pointy eared child running around Rivendale...possibly being chased by Liv Tyler, which would really go to show just how weird that relationship really was...but no, from a story POV there's not a lot of point including him.

Legolas on the other hand, has every reason to make an appearance without it feeling like a fan-service cameo.

 

Jackson could go in two directions with Legolas. He could lead Thranduil's army in the Battle of Five Armies, which I think is the most likely role for Legolas. Or he could be part of the Elven attack on Dol Guldur that is rumored to be part of the film duology.

 

Elijah's coming back.

Gee. I actually don't know how I feel about this but since it has been announced, it is reasonable that Frodo would be hearing the story for the first time.

 

That does seem most logical, yeah.

Conceivably, to the extent that the assault on Dol Guldur is depicted, Saruman and possibly Elrond could potentially be included, since as I recall from the novel the entire Council is involved in that attack.