Elijah Wood sat down at the Rolling Stone Studio at SXSW this week and gave his most detailed comments yet on the possibility of returning as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. He stopped short of confirming it outright, but everything he said pointed in one direction.
Wood addresses the Frodo question
The conversation around his potential return has been building for months. At a fan convention last August, Ian McKellen casually mentioned that the upcoming Andy Serkis-directed film would feature a character named Frodo, effectively letting the cat out of the bag before any official announcement.
Wood acknowledged this at SXSW, saying the news came out before the studio was ready to share it, but adding there was a good chance he would be back and that he was genuinely excited about the prospect.
He also addressed the age question directly and honestly: “Obviously, we’re all getting older, right? And there’s a point in time in which that just won’t make sense anymore.” It is a practical reality that comes with revisiting a role defined by youth, and Wood did not shy away from it.
At the same time, he made clear that as long as he is physically able, he has no interest in stepping aside. When the conversation turned to McKellen’s stance that he would not want anyone else to play Gandalf, Wood’s response was immediate: he felt the same way about Frodo.
The Hunt for Gollum is set to fill the gap between the end of The Hobbit trilogy and the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, following Gandalf’s and Aragorn’s search for Gollum in connection with Bilbo’s ring.
Andy Serkis is both directing and reprising his role as Gollum, with Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, who wrote the original trilogy, back to handle the screenplay. Kate Winslet has also been confirmed for a leading role, though her character has not yet been revealed.
Wood’s role, if confirmed, is expected to be relatively small given the story’s timeline. One widely discussed possibility is that Gandalf recounts the events of the hunt to Frodo, using the hobbit as a framing device rather than placing him at the center of the action. Industry insider Daniel Richtman has separately reported that Wood is currently in active talks to return.
The film is scheduled for release in December 2027, marking the first theatrical Lord of the Rings film in over two decades
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