Orlando Bloom Wants to Return for New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movies

A few days after Ian McKellen expressed interest in returning as Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s new live-action “Lord of the Rings” movies, his co-star Orlando Bloom is adding his name to the list.

When asked by Variety if he was interested in returning to the Tolkien franchise, the Legolas actor said, “Oh, man, those things are amazing. Yeah. I don’t know how they’d do it. I guess with AI you can do anything these days. But, if Pete [Peter Jackson] says jump, I say, ‘how high?’ I mean, he started my whole career.”

The new Middle-earth movies will kick off in 2026 with “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” directed by Andy Serkis, who will reprise his role of Gollum/Sméagol. Original franchise director Jackson is on board to produce alongside his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The plan is for that film to be the start of a new live-action “Lord of the Rings” series.

“I really don’t know what [they are planning],” Bloom added. “I did speak to Andy [Serkis] and he did say they were thinking about how to do things. I was like, ‘How would that even work?’ And he was like, ‘Well, AI!’ and I was like, ‘Oh, OK!’ It was a pretty magical time in my life, and it’s one of those things where there’s not a downside to it.”

While the new “Lord of the Rings” movies are still in development at Warner Bros., McKellen said earlier in September, “I’ve just been told there are going to be more films and Gandalf will be involved and they hope that I’ll be playing him. When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”

Bloom looked back on his “Lord of the Rings” tenure inside Variety‘s Toronto Film Festival Studio, sponsored by J.Crew and SharkNinja, while promoting his boxing drama “The Cut.” The film, directed by Sean Ellis and co-starring John Turturro and Caitríona Balfe, made its world premiere on Thursday, Sept. 5 at the festival.