LOTR: Fellowship Of The Ring at 25 - Where Is the Cast Now?

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson’s flawless fantasy trilogy is returning to UK cinemas this week in its extended editions—and if our streaming charts are anything to go by, fans of Middle-earth have already begun to mark the occasion.

When I think about all the things that Jackson—a then relatively obscure filmmaker—got right with his adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, one that always stuck out to me is how well the films are cast. Working with casting director Victoria Burrows, Jackson managed to populate Tolkien's world with a perfect mix of cult legends, up-and-comers and people we’d never heard of, each of whom embodied their role as if they were born to play it. Some have gone on to stellar careers; others have simply enjoyed the spoils that these kinds of iconic roles can offer.So, join us as we travel back to Hobbiton, Rivendell and the Mines of Moria to find out what the cast of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring are up to. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find out where to stream some of their best movies on services like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere. 

Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins

With his boyish face and blue eyes, Elijah Wood began appearing on screens from the age of seven after getting his first gig on a music video directed by David Fincher. He spent the ‘90s as a reliable teen star, playing the title role in The Adventure of Huck Finn and starring in Flipper before moving into more mature roles in movies like Deep Impact and Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm.

Naturally, landing the role of Frodo Baggins changed everything—the kind of part an actor carries with them, like a ringbearer, for the rest of their life. After some topsy-turvy years, Woord now seems to have embraced his post-LOTR life, happily appearing in memes and cooking shows while lending his celebrity to indie movies like The Monkey and recently reuniting with Cristina Ricci, his Ice Storm co-star, on the second season of Yellowjackets.

One(s) to watch: For the Ice Storm nostalgia, try Yellowjackets, but his creepy turn in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is just as delightful.

Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee

It’s unusual to think, but at the time of The Fellowship’s release, Sean Astin was possibly the second or third most famous person in the cast—at least to American audiences. Movie fans worldwide will have recognised him for playing Mikey in The Goonies, but his biggest parts (the title role in the American Football drama Rudy, a lead in 1991’s Toy Soldiers) weren’t the type of thing that translated overseas, at least not at the time. 

Post-LOTR, in which Astin bared his soul and won legions of fans, the actor has leaned into his nerdy fame with roles in The Big Bang Theory and even Stranger Things.

One to watch: If you liked him in Goonies, you can’t go too far wrong with Stranger Things.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey

As we mentioned, Astin might have provided a familiar face, but hiring Ian McKellen to play Gandalf gave the movies a dash of celebrity and a huge amount of class. By the turn of the millennium, the actor had already won a Tony and five Olivier awards and had been nominated at the Emmys, the BAFTAs, and the Oscars. What’s more, he arrived on set having just wrapped his first performance playing Magneto in X-Men, the other role that would soon solidify him as an icon of ‘00s cinema.

McKellen has pretty much stayed on that steady career trajectory ever since and has cemented his place as a national treasure in the process. He would eventually play Gandalf six times over Jackson’s Rings and Hobbit movies, and will reprise his role as Magneto for the fifth time in Avengers: Doomsday later this year. Not bad for an 87-year-old.

One to watch: For something outside of all that, his performance as a slightly geriatric Sherlock in 2015’s Mr Holmes is charming.

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn

If you know anything about Viggo Mortensen, it’s probably that the actor broke his foot kicking that Uruk-hai helmet in the second movie… I jest. 

The Danish-American renaissance man is said to spend much of his time riding horses, painting, making music, watching and playing football (specifically San Lorenzo and Fulham), and writing poetry books that he publishes with his own printing press. The mild-mannered icon (who will never not be our Aragorn, whether he likes it or not) brought many of those skills to bear in his recent movie, The Dead Don’t Hurt—an underappreciated Western that the actor wrote, directed, starred in, and even composed the score for. 

When he is just sticking to the acting bit, Mortensen is usually doing it for filmmakers like David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) and Lisandro Alonso (Eureka), but he does still occasionally lend his gravitas to more mainstream fare, like Green Book and Ron Howard’s excellent Thirteen Lives. 

One to watch: If you’re a fan of classic Westerns, The Dead Don’t Hurt feels like something from another era—and I mean that in the best way possible. 

Orlando Bloom as Legolas

Some viewers wanted him, others wanted to be him: we are talking, of course, about Legolas. Over three Lord of the Rings films, no character got to farm more aura points (remember that bit when he got on the horse, but like in reverse?) than Orlando Bloom’s lithe and immaculate elf, but it’s a role that the actor—somewhat surprisingly—has yet to eclipse.

Of course, he soon made his mark on another multi-film adventure, Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (the first of which was released the same year as Return of the King), but it’s fair to say that Bloom’s character, Will Turner, was nobody’s favourite part of that original trilogy. His collaboration with Ridley Scott in Kingdom of Heaven has recently been reclaimed as something of a modern classic, but outside of returning as Legolas in two of Jackson’s Hobbit films, the actor has hardly moved the needle.Might his highly publicised split with Katie Perry and his self-deprecating turn in Deep Cover last year suggest a welcome change of direction? The actor will next appear opposite Kate and Rooney Mara in Werner Herzog’s hilariously titled Bucking Fastard this year. Watch this space.

One to watch: If you’ve got time for Scott’s director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven, it’s well worth revisiting.

John Rhys-Davies as Gimli

If there's an actor you probably aren’t sure you’d seen before, or even since, watching Fellowship, it’s probably John Rhys-Davies. This has more to do with the fact that his portrayal of the dwarf Gimli involved him hiding his face behind a considerable beard. He also had to appear much shorter than his usual formidable 185cm.

Chances are, you’re just as familiar with the actor for his portrayal of Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies—he appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade and reprised the role for Dial of Destiny in 2023. Outside of that world, the actor has loaned his booming voice to various characters, including Brine King in both Aquaman movies for the DCEU. Keep an eye out for him in Terrence Malick’s forever-in-production Jesus film, The Way of the Wind—if and when, please lord, we ever get to see it.

One to watch: The fez is probably a bit insensitive, but his presence is a consistent joy in Raiders of the Lost Arc.

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel

With so few female characters in The Fellowship, Jackson had to make the few that did appear really count. For Galadriel, the director cast a then only moderately famous Cate Blanchett, an actress who at that point had only just caught the world’s attention for her supporting roles in Elisabeth (which earned her her first acting nomination) and The Talented Mr Ripley the previous year. Needless to say, the Australian dominated every moment she appeared on screen and, thanks to some remarkable narration, even some of the ones she didn’t. 

Since then, Blanchett has gone on to have one of the great careers of the 21st century—earning Oscar nominations for her shapeshifting performances in movies like Carol and Tar and winning for both The Aviator and Blue Jasmine. In more big-budget fare, she also played memorable villains in both Thor: Ragnarok and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. If anything, it would be easier to list the things she hasn’t achieved at this stage.

One to watch: It’s problematic, but there’s a reason why her work in Blue Jasmine swept the awards that year.

Hugo Weaving as Elrond

Another member of the elven world who has enjoyed a notable career playing Hollywood villains is Hugo Weaving, who played the unaging Elrond in The Fellowship, both at the battle of Dagorlad in the introduction and later at his own council in Rivendell. Blanchet’s fellow elf (and fellow Aussie resident) came into Jackson’s universe on something of a career high, having captivated the world with his performance as Agent Smith in The Matrix the previous summer. 

He has since gone on to play several iconic roles—even though one of his best known, the title character in V for Vendetta, meant that the actor’s face was never seen. Regardless, his appearance as Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avengers (a role he reprised in Infinity War and Endgame) deserves similar recognition. 

One to watch: Captain America: The First Avenger, in which he admirably chews every single piece of scenery.

Liv Tyler as Arwen

The only other major female performance in The Fellowship was Liv Tyler’s ethereal portrayal of Arwen—Elrond’s daughter, Aragorn’s love, and a timely summoner of river steeds. The daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, Liv had featured in a number of prominent movies in the years leading up to The Fellowship’s release—memorably appearing in the now slightly dated Empire Records and for a scene involving animal crackers in Armageddon.

Since LOTR, Tyler’s career might be best described as a little bit stop-and-start. She appeared in The Incredible Hulk before disappearing from the MCU for 17 years and had a role in James Grey’s Ad Astra, but her most memorable work from that time has probably been her portrayal of Meg Abbott across three seasons of The Leftovers. 

One to watch: The Leftovers.

Dominic Monaghan as Merry Brandybuck

As Merry, Dominic Monaghan was not the most beloved of the central Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings movies, but he might be the only actor among them who would go on to transcend their role. For Lost fans, the actor will likely always be Charlie, the recovering addict and former lead singer of Driveshaft—and if you followed that show and his character’s arc, especially his acting in later episodes (NOT PENNY’S BOAT!), you probably feel that way, too.

Movie-wise, some of his choices might not have been the best, but he certainly ticked a few fandom boxes by appearing in both the Marvel (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Star Wars (The Rise of Skywalker) universes in later years. 

One to watch: Definitely Lost.

Billy Boyd as Peregrin Took

Of all the Hobbiton boys, Billy “Fool of a Took” Boyd has probably gone on to have the most low-key career. He kept a foot in the door of the Tolkien universe, contributing and singing a song (as he had done in Return of the King) to the final Hobbit movie and, more recently, voicing Shank in the animated movie, The Battle of the Rohirrim, but outside of that, there hasn’t been a huge amount to report.

That said, he did play a helmsman in Peter Weir’s Master and Commander, one of the best movies of the century—I mean, if I’d played Pippin and acted with peak Russell Crowe, I too might have considered taking it easy.

One to watch: Master and Commander, always and forever.