Jamie Dornan Cast in Viggo Mortensen’s Previous Role in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

After re-confirming earlier this month that Viggo Mortensen would not be returning to his old role in The Lord of the Rings series for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, Warner Bros. and New Line have confirmed the character of Strider will be played by Jamie Dornan (The Fall, the Fifty Shades series).

The announcement came as part of the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas today. Dornan is joined by Leo Woodall (White Lotus, One Day), who will play a fellow Dúnedain Ranger called Halvard joining Strider on his mission. It was also confirmed that Lee Pace will be returning to his Hobbit trilogy role as Thranduil the Elvenking.

The actors will feature alongside the likes of Kate Winslet, who was confirmed to be joining the cast in a major role last month, as well as returning stars Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Elijah Wood as Frodo, and the film’s director Andy Serkis as Gollum.

Set between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hunt for Gollum is scheduled to hit cinemas on December 17, 2027. It’s one of two upcoming films expanding on the iconic series established by director Peter Jackson in the early 2000s; the other is Shadow of the Past, which was first unveiled last month and is being co-written by The Late Show host Stephen Colbert.

For everything revealed and discussed at WB’s CinemaCon presentation, check out IGN’s full round-up.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.