Viggo Mortensen Shares His Thoughts On Amazon's Lord Of The Rings TV Series

Actor Viggo Mortensen, who famously played Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings movies, has said he plans to watch the upcoming Amazon series and he's excited by it. However, the actor said he's also feeling cautious because he's not sure how much of the wider fiction it will incorporate.

Speaking to GQ, Mortensen said Lord of the Rings TV director J.A. Bayona is a "good director" so he's keen to watch it for that reason alone. But he wonders if the Tolkien Estate might have limited what Amazon could show and use for the series.

"I'm interested to see what they do. They've been shooting that in New Zealand. Bayona is a good director, so it'll probably be worth watching," he said. "I'll be curious to see what they do, how they interpret Tolkien. I don't know how much the Tolkien Estate has allowed them to use."

This isn't the first time that Mortensen has reacted to Amazon's Lord of the Rings series. In 2020, he said he hopes Amazon doesn't try to make it a show like Game of Thrones with "arbitrary violence." He also said he believes the crew has every opportunity to do it right after the example set by Peter Jackson with the Lord of the Rings films.

There is no word yet on when the Amazon Lord of the Rings series will premiere. Work on the show is progressing along, with more than 20 actors recently joining the cast. The show takes place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, which is long before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Amazon is also working a new Lord of the Rings MMO, but it doesn't tie into the game. We recently learned a lot about this game, including a targeted release date and more.