13 years after the character’s last appearance, The Hunt for Gollum has the opportunity to fix one of the Lord of the Rings franchise’s best and most underused castings — so, hopefully, it rises to the occasion. The upcoming LOTR movie will take place between Bilbo Baggins’ birthday and Frodo’s departure from the Shire. And in returning us to The Fellowship of the Ring‘s timeline, it will bring back several Lord of the Rings characters, including Aragorn (played by a new actor) and Gandalf.
This was expected, as these characters play a prominent role in the search for Gollum that precedes Frodo’s journey in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. There are a couple of other familiar faces that will make appearances as well, including Frodo — likely as a means of bookending the story — and a popular character from The Hobbit trilogy who deserves the additional screen time and even deeper characterization.
The CinemaCon panel announcing The Hunt for Gollum‘s official cast revealed that Lee Pace will reprise his role as Thranduil in the upcoming film. Pace portrayed the Elvenking in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, and in terms of appearance and potential, his casting is top-tier. His return in The Hunt for Gollum has been a possibility, as Aragorn brings Gollum to Mirkwood, according to Tolkien’s source material. It’s nice to get the confirmation that we’ll see the character again, though, and that he’ll be played by the same actor who brought him to life in The Hobbit movies. Since he’s a standout in those, it’s surprising Warner Bros. hasn’t done more with him until now — but this is the franchise’s chance to fix that.
Casting Pace as Thranduil was one of the best decisions made for The Hobbit trilogy, as he looks iconic as the Elvenking and captures crucial elements of the character. His detached, isolated nature, regal presence, and intimidating but wise leadership are among them — though there’s some debate over whether the films nail the full picture. Pace gets the antagonistic aspects of Thranduil right, but those come to define his iteration of the character. We see less of the fiercely protective, wise leader Tolkien describes, though there are glimpses of those qualities throughout.
And although The Hobbit films expand Thranduil’s role from the book — the result of extending Tolkien’s story into three parts — he’s underused in the wider Lord of the Rings franchise. Even The Hobbit movies could have dug into the various sides of the character more, but they at least give him enough time to leave an impression. But considering the popularity of the character, and the fact that Tolkien discusses his contributions during the War of the Ring and Fourth Age, it’s somewhat surprising Warner Bros. hasn’t brought Pace back for another project until now. The excitement surrounding him is surely enough to draw viewers to theaters for a spinoff. At least The Hunt for Gollum is capitalizing on that, even if it’s 13 years after The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
The Hunt for Gollum can finally expand on Lee Pace’s Thranduil, something the franchise really should have tried sooner, as it’d make for a compelling spinoff (and Warner Bros. is clearly not shy about returning to the trilogy’s timeline). Hopefully, he’ll get a decent amount of screen time here — enough to double down on his commitment to Mirkwood and his people. Truly, it’s a shame The Hobbit movies came after The Lord of the Rings films, as they could’ve included the Elvenking as well. Alas, at least the franchise is making up for his absence in the original trilogy now. It’s been a long time since we saw him last, but returning to him 13 years later is better than never doing it. And perhaps, if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see him defend against Sauron’s forces in the 2027 film as well. After seeing him in action in The Hobbit, that’s a promising prospect.
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