When Sean Astin wanted to play Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings

Sean Astin’s performance as Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings is iconic, but it wasn’t the only role he was interested in.

Before Sean Astin settled into the role of Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins’ best friend in The Lord of the Rings, there was another role he was gunning for that didn’t pan out.

Astin recently joined fellow LOTR veterans for an event at the Alamo Drafthouse hosted by Lord of the Rings superfan Stephen Colbert to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring. These conversations are being shown before screenings of the trilogy, which are taking place in Alamo Drafthouse theaters nationwide.

Also at the reunion were director Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood (Frodo), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Billy Boyd (Pippin), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Dominic Monaghan (Merry), Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn), Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Liv Tyler (Arwen).

With Amazon’s unnamed Lord of the Rings series currently in the works, it seems like an opportune time to remind people why they love this franchise so much.

The conversations were extremely nostalgic and included an interesting reveal from Sean Astin. Apparently, the actor was originally interested in taking on the role of Aragorn, who was played by Viggo Mortensen.

"The way the agent and Victoria Burrows the casting director were talking to me, all of a sudden I got this sense, like, ‘Wait a minute. Are you pigeon-holing me? Is this typecasting? Who else could I be because this Aragorn guy looks really cool — he’s got a sword! Could I play Aragorn?’ And I remember them going, ‘No. No, you couldn’t play Aragorn.’"

While I love Astin’s ambition, he was way better suited to play Samwise. Can you even imagine The Lord of the Rings any other way?

I think I’m going to have to agree with the professionals on this one. Astin will always and forever be Samwise, and I simply couldn’t imagine him as anyone else even if he did for a fleeting moment.

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h/t Gamespot