News The Hunt for Gollum The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Has Found Its Strider ’round here, folks just call him Christian Grey By Molly Templeton | Published on April 15, 2026 Image: New Line Cinema Comment 0 Share New Share Image: New Line Cinema Viggo, we’ll miss you. But there’s a new man filling Strider’s muddy boots. After some lively speculation, it turns out that the man playing Aragorn in Andy Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum has some hunting experience (fictionally speaking): Jamie Dornan has been cast in the role. Dornan’s most visible role was as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movies, and if that’s what you know him from, well, it does make this casting seem a bit odd. But long before that, he was Once Upon a Time’s Huntsman. He was also in the 2018 Robin Hood movie (about which the less said, the better) and the series The Fall, with Gillian Anderson. We already knew that Ian McKellan and Elijah Wood are returning to Middle-earth as Gandalf and Frodo, but one more familiar face will put on his cloak and headdress for this film: Lee Pace is now set to return as Thranduil, the king of the elves of Mirkwood. Pace gave us possibly the greatest elf this side of Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel, all arrogance and style, and his return is enough to get a person just a little bit excited about Serkis’ film. Leo Woodall will also join the film as Halvard after the actor was previously rumored to be in the running for the Strider role. But this film! As a reminder, it takes place between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, because the movies are apparently playing with Tolkien’s timeline a bit. It follows Strider and Gandalf as they search for Gollum, wishing to speak to him about his precious. This feels unnecessary, though not as much as Stephen Colbert’s movie version of six chapters from Fellowship that didn’t make it into Peter Jackson’s original film. The Hunt for Gollum kicks off in theaters on December 17, 2027.[end-mark] The post <i>The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum</i> Has Found Its Strider appeared first on Reactor.