Watch this video of Viggo Mortensen’s last day on The Lord of the Rings set

The Lord of the Rings movies were the fantasy franchise of the early 2000s, setting up a world ready for the likes of Game of Thrones. With Amazon getting ready to revive the franchise with a splashy new series, now seems like a good time to revisit what the movies meant to the cultural landscape at the time, and what their legacy has been.

But that’s something for a different article. Right now, just sit back and watch this video of Viggo Mortensen’s last day on the set of The Return of the King, the final movie in the trilogy. Mortensen, of course, played the titular king, Aragorn son of Arathorn, and received an emotional parting worthy of his huge part in the story.

"Here’s a great video of Viggo’s last day playing Aragorn. from lotr"

The footage comes from the special features of the Extended Editions of the movies. I think Mortensen was wiping away a stray tear when he hugged Peter Jackson. Or maybe it was sweat or dust or something. Nope, going with tear.

The haka dance the stunt team performs is a dance created by the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand, although it’s since spread around the world. The Hawaiian-born Jason Momoa, for example, performed one at the Aquaman premiere, because of course he did:

The original Lord of the Rings movies were filmed in New Zealand, and the show will follow suit. (Aquaman was filmed in Australia, by the way, which I’m guessing is when Momoa was exposed to the haka.) The new show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, long before Aragorn was born, but if the show features a noble-hearted stalwart hero-type, I know I’ll be comparing his performance to Mortensen’s whether I want to or not.

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