Just yesterday we heard that casting was under-way for The Hobbit films in London and Los Angeles, and now Peter Jackson has revealed a bit more information on which characters from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy will be returning. When he was asked this question in the past he wasn’t sure as the script wasn’t completed, however now the script for the first film is done so they have a better idea of which characters will be needed.
From MTV:
“Gandalf, being a 2,000-year-old wizard, is still around and plays a major role in ‘The Hobbit,’ and we’re having Ian McKellen reprise,” explained the filmmaker, who is executive-producing the flick and writing the screenplay. “There’s a couple of other characters: Elrond, who was played by Hugo Weaving [in the original films], and there’s a possibility of Galadriel, who was played by Cate Blanchett.”
“They are elves, so once again, in the realm of Middle-earth, they’re immortal, they don’t age,” he said of Galadriel and Elrond, the only returning “LOTR” main roles besides Gandalf in his script. “We have a process that would start with showing them the script. We’re not [beginning] any official process until we have the ‘official’ script that they can read.”
“In some respects, it’s a prequel,” Jackson said of the flick, which he plans to begin filming in mid-2010. “In book terms, the world of ‘The Hobbit’ takes place 60 years before ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ as it was written by Tolkien. So, not a lot of the characters actually feature, because they weren’t around yet.”
In past interviews Blanchett said that while she didn’t have a large role in the films she did enjoy the role and would return if asked. If thinks work out we could very well see Galadriel back on the big screen.
