With Guillermo Del Toro’s Lord Of the Rings Follow-up/prequel/fill-in chapter coming well into pre-production, questions about casting are beginning to arise so far nothing has been set in stone but it is strongly believed that Del Toro wnats to bring back as much of the cast as he can. There are a number of chracters that feature in The Hobbit that also featured in Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy. These include Gollum and Gandalf, both Ian Mckellen and Andy Serkis have expressed strong interest in returning and both seem a sure thing, as for the sequel that will fill the gap between The Hobbit and LOTR it it possible we could see any number of characters returning.
The big question though is who will play the titular Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Ian Holm played Bilbo originally but his role is pivotal and he is the ‘main’ character. To me it seems unlikely Holm will return and the producers will seek a younger actor, maybe one with a bit more star power and box office pull.
Many sources are suggesting that James McAvoy is being sought to play the role, perfect casting in my eyes and fan communities also seem to agree. With McAvoy’s star power on the rise, as being capable of carrying a big budget film in Wanted, he certainly he has that box office pull and the other important factor is that he can actually act, and has done fantasy before extremely well as Mr. Tumnus in The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. Only time will tell and all this rumour mongering could well be false, but i certainly can’t see any better actor being able to pull of the role. What do you guys thing? Good or bad casting?
As for the role of Smaug, the stories main protagonist expectation is that Del Toro’s favourite actor and best friend Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman will voice and do much of the motion capture, again this is merely rumour at this point. But the more i hear on this film the better it sounds!
The Hobbit is due in 2010. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro and co-written and co-produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
