Adam Serkis won't do a 'politically correct' casting in Lord of the Rings movie 'for the sake of it'
Andy Serkis is directing The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which stars Kate Winslet, Jamie Dornan and Anya Taylor-Joy - with Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen back to star as Frodo and Gandalf respectively.
Andy Serkis has insisted he won’t be doing a “politically correct casting” for his Lord of the Rings movie just to avoid controversy.
The actor is directing The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which stars Kate Winslet, Jamie Dornan and Anya Taylor-Joy - with Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen back to star as Frodo and Gandalf respectively.
However, the announcement of the cast has sparked criticism from some people due to its lack of diversity.
But speaking to the BBC, Andy insisted that Lord of the Rings writer J.R.R. Tolkien was “influenced a lot by Norse mythology”, and “there’s a lot of that feeling” in the films.
He continued: “The Shire feels very, very much like a very, a very white, you know… They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of The Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in.”
Andy added that his film is “somewhat acknowledging” the lack of diversity, but said: “We don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film.
“So, it’s only where relevant basically.”
He spoke more about the highly-anticipated film, due for release in 2027, as he said that plot wise it “sits absolutely between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies, and books in fact”.
Andy explained: “It is very much a deep dive into the psychology and history of Gollum before he became Gollum, but also with a very burning question from Gandalf about what the potential origin of this ring that Bilbo Baggins has is.”
“The hunt takes place in two different dimensions really and that’s about as far as I can say at the moment.”
Andy has yet to address cast member Anna’s admission that she has yet to read the Lord of the Rings books.
Speaking to Variety at the premiere of her new Apple TV series Lucky on Monday (13.07.26), Taylor-Joy said: "I'm about to read the books now, actually.
"So as a child, I had a misguided idea that you could only be a Harry Potter fan or a Lord of the Rings fan. Nobody told me that. I just came up with that on my own.
"Luckily, throughout Covid, I then watched all of Lord of the Rings, and turns out you can love both, and you should."
