It looks like the producers of The Lord of the Rings are serious about the new spinoff film, The Hunt for Gollum, because it's just added a huge Oscar winner to its cast. The prequel is set in the period between The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, exploring how Gollum (Andy Serkis, who also directs) began his search for the One Ring Bilbo took from him, and the return of Sauron.
The cast has been building, with a mix of both returning actors and newcomers. Now, Deadline has broken the exclusive confirmation that Oscar winner Kate Winslet will be playing the female lead. There’s no word on her exact role, but the article states that Serkis and producer Peter Jackson "spent most of last year" trying to convince Winslet to uproot her family and move to New Zealand for filming, which will run from late May through October. The movie is written by Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou with Jackson, Boyens, Walsh and Zane Weiner producing.
Winslet is the first confirmed casting, though rumors abound about other actors from the original trilogy coming back. That includes Elijah Wood as Frodo, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Sean Bean as Boromir, and Orlando Bloom as Legolas. However, there are rumors of possibly recasting Viggo Mortensen with Leo Woodall for Aragorn, rather than using CGI de-aging for the part. There has also been buzz about Furiosa star Anya Tayloy Joy potentially joining the cast as well.
Those are only rumors — though in the case of Wood and McKellan, they're all but assured. Winslet the first truly confirmed star, and her casting is an interesting turn for the project.
Why is Kate Winslet joining Lord of the Rings?
What makes this project notable is that it will reunite Winslet with Peter Jackson, who directed her in 1994’s Heavenly Creatures, the role that made Winslet a star. It’s taken a while for them to reunite, with Winslet embarking on a career that’s included seven Oscar nominations (with one win) as well as starring in one of the biggest box office hits in history with Titanic.Â
Winslet has always balanced herself between high-profile Hollywood fare and more offbeat projects. This is an actress who can star in a World War II drama like Lee and also play a part in Avatar: The Way of Water. She also loves vanishing into roles and layering them with nuance. Thus, it’s totally believable Winslet would join a Lord of the Rings project.Â
Who she’s going to play remains a question. An obvious idea is that Winslet will play a younger version of Galadriel, who was played by Cate Blanchett in LOTR. However, given that Blanchett reprised the role in The Hobbit, it’d be jarring to have a completely different actress in the role, especially since The Hunt for Gollum takes place right in the middle of the previous films. More likely, Winslet is playing an original character crafted for the tale who perhaps joins Aragorn in the search for Gollum before he’s captured by Mordor.Â
We still have a lot to learn before the cameras roll. But adding an actress with as much clout as Kate Winslet is a sign the studio is serious about The Hunt for Gollum being as epic as any other Lord of the Rings film.