We can officially add Elijah Wood to the chorus of voices who don’t know what to make of Warner Bros.’ plans for new Lord of the Rings movies. In theory, the franchise’s lore is vast enough for dozens of additional stories to be told outside of J.R.R. Tolkein’s original book trilogy, which Peter Jackson famously brought to life in the early 2000s. But as we learned earlier this week, the studio isn’t above rebooting a major (and more importantly, recent) film series whose cultural impact rivals that of its source material, and this has a lot of fans on edge. It’s still too early to speculate on what WB execs have in mind for Middle-earth. Regardless, Wood offered his own thoughts in a new interview with GQ.
Having starred as Frodo Baggins in Jackson’s movies, Wood is perfectly entitled to his own opinion here. Naturally, he wants to be supportive, since the franchise was an important part of his career. But even Wood couldn’t help but admit that there’s probably another reason why WB is revisiting Tolkien’s novels.
“I’m fascinated and I’m excited,” said Wood. “I hope it’s good. I’m surprised — I don’t know why I’m surprised because, of course there would be more movies. Obviously at the core of that, is a desire to make a lot of money. It’s not that a bunch of executives are like, ‘Let’s make really awesome art.’ And, again, not begrudging anybody because, of course, it is commerce. But great art can come from commerce. So those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
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Wood also stressed how WB needs to hire the right people if they want to achieve even a modicum of the success that Jackson’s films enjoyed in the early 2000s.
“Lord of the Rings didn’t come out of that place,” noted Wood. “It came out of a passion for these books and wanting to see them realized. And I hope that that is ultimately what will drive everything forward with whatever these subsequent movies are. I just hope that it’s the same motivating factor at its core, whenever they hire a screenwriter and a filmmaker—that it is with reverence for Tolkien’s material and enthusiasm to explore it.”
WB has yet to share a release window for the new Lord of the Rings films. In the meantime, fans can catch Wood in the ongoing second season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, which premieres on Sunday nights at 9pm.
What do you think of Wood’s thoughts about The Lord of the Rings’ big-screen future? Let us know in the comment section below.
Recommended Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
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