Hugo Weaving Not Interested in Revisiting Lord of the Rings Role

Hugo Weaving would have liked to reprise his role in The Matrix films, but Lord of the Rings? Not so much. Weaving spoke with Variety for a new interview and was asked whether he would be willing to play Elrond in Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series, and gave an emphatic response.

“No way. Absolutely no,” Weaving said. “Matrix might have happened. But Lord of the Rings no, I would never – I’m not interested in that at all. Look, I loved being in New Zealand with all those great people, and it was like going back to a family but actually, to be honest, I think everyone had more than enough of it.”

Weaving played Elrond for the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as the first and third Hobbit films. Elrond would be one of the few characters from the film who could appear in the Amazon series, which is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, well before the events of the films.

Weaving noted that he’s not ruling out future franchise or tentpole releases, saying, “They have to be something really interesting, with a different twist to make me really keen to do it. I’m not saying ‘no’ [to franchise films] because I’m sort of open to anything, But I suppose my interests have always lay with [Australia] and trying to find really interesting projects out here. That’s my primary focus.”

Weaving was willing to return for The Matrix 4, but that scheduling conflicts got in the way. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series is expected to arrive sometime next year.