Lord of the Rings: Hugo Weaving Reveals Why He Doesn’t Want To Return

With the upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series at Amazon still in deep development, it’s still mostly unclear how it will relate to the successful Peter Jackson film series. Though the series won’t cover the same narrative tracks as the movies, it will seemingly be set generations beforehand, there’s a possibility that characters could still appear thanks to their extended life span. The pool of characters that fits that bill is primarily the elves, played by the likes of Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, and Liv Tyler, in the movies, but one of those elves has made his position very clear about not coming back for more.

“No way. Absolutely no,” Hugo Weaving, who played Elrond in the films, said in a new interview with Variety when asked about returning. “Matrix might have happened, but Lord of the Rings, no, I would never — I’m not interested in that at all. Look, I loved being in New Zealand with all those great people, and it was like going back to a family but actually, to be honest, I think everyone had more than enough of it.”

This isn’t the first time that Weaving hasn’t minced words about not wanting to participate in blockbuster franchises despite his previous involvement. Weaving appeared as the villain the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but publicly spoke about his disinterest in coming back for the part due to the facial prosthetics that he was forced to wear. The character was recast for his appearances in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame with Ross Marquand taking the role.

“They have to be something really interesting, with a different twist to make me really keen to do it,” Weaving told the outlet in conclusion.

Production on the TV series has resumed after a stoppage due to the coronavirus, with cameras rolling in Neq Zealand, the home of the original six feature films. Writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will serve as showrunners for the series which has Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom filmmaker J.A. Bayona directing the initial episodes. Confirmed cast members include Robert Aramayo (young Ned on Game of Thrones), Ismael Cruz Córdova (The Mandalorian), Joseph Mawle (Benjen Stark of Game of Thrones), and newcomer Tyroe Muhafidin.

Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series had only been filming for a few weeks and was already set to take a break after filming its first two episodes before the pandemic shut down the series. The show has already been renewed for a second season on Amazon Prime before production had even begun, and was previously expected to debut its first season in 2021 but it’s unclear if the timetable has now been delayed.