Of course, Wood will always be attached to Lord of the Rings. It’s firmly embedded in the cultural consciousness. Its fans have grown up and had kids who are now fans. And for someone who has no doubt been asked about this in every interview and stopped on the street countless times over the past 20 years, Wood is remarkably sanguine when discussing it.
Last year, he even reconnected with Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan—the actors who played the other hobbits—and they went on tour together to various fan conventions. They also have an ongoing group chat. “We’re all obsessed with The New York Times crossword, specifically trying to beat the Mini in as little time as possible,” Wood says.
Tolkien’s work is still omnipresent in another way: as hot intellectual property. After the trilogy, Peter Jackson made his Hobbit adaptations. Amazon spent $715 million on their Rings of Power series, released last year. And in February, Warner Brothers announced that they’re going to use the original IP to make “multiple Lord of the Rings movies”—eliciting groans from longtime fans of the trilogy.
What does Wood think of the impending remakes?
“I’m fascinated and I’m excited. I hope it’s good. I’m surprised—I don’t know why I’m surprised because, of course there would be more movies,” he says.
“Obviously at the core of that, is a desire to make a lot of money. It’s not that a bunch of executives are like, ‘Let’s make really awesome art,’” Wood continues. “And, again, not begrudging anybody because, of course, it is commerce. But great art can come from commerce. So those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
“But Lord of the Rings didn’t come out of that place,” he adds. “It came out of a passion for these books and wanting to see them realized. And I hope that that is ultimately what will drive everything forward with whatever these subsequent movies are. I just hope that it’s the same motivating factor at its core, whenever they hire a screenwriter and a filmmaker—that it is with reverence for Tolkien’s material and enthusiasm to explore it.”
As for Wood, he’s returning to New Zealand this spring, where he spent all the many months of his young adulthood filming Rings. He’ll be playing a magician dad on a road trip with his estranged daughter in the upcoming film Bookworm. It will be his first trip back in nearly a decade, and the first one in a decidedly new season of his life: this time, his family is coming along.
Gabriella Paiella
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