Whether it’s through the theatrical re-release of the original trilogy or the upcoming 2024 movie The Lord of the Rings : The War of the Rohirrim , author J.R.R.
Tolkien’s creation continues to thrive. So of course when something this mythic continues to enter people’s minds, it presents an opportunity to keep learning new bits of trivia. For instance, I just found out that Russell Crowe of all people turned down a pretty huge role in director Peter Jackson ’s first series of LOTR adaptations.
What’s better is, Crowe himself addresses this possibility, and whether or not he regretted passing on it, in true New Zealander fashion. The famed star of Gladiator and The Nice Guys definitely isn’t the first, or last, person who passed on joining the Lord of the Rings saga. There are tons of stories out there about how actors like the late Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer turned down Gandalf .
But apparently, thanks to his interview with GQ , skipping out on his potential casting was pretty easy, as this was his impression of what was really going on: I don’t actually. I was a big Tolkien reader when I was a kid, so I got very excited about the idea of Lord of the Rings. But, I very much felt the studio were making that decision, not the film director.
And I talked to Peter Jackson over the phone, and he wasn’t saying the sort of things that directors were saying to you if they were really trying to attract you to a project. And I just kind of got a sense that he .
