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Movies & Series 11 April 2022, 19:09

author: Jan Tracz

Cult Roles Almost Played by Somebody Else

There's a ton of cult characters from movies out there, and we tend to associate figures like Han Solo or Daenerys Targaryen exclusively with actors who performed them. Here, we have some fun imagining alternative versions of famous castings.

Table of Contents

Aragorn – The Lord of the Rings – Daniel Day-Lewis

  1. Ultimately performed by: Viggo Mortensen
  2. When: In 2001.
  3. Where to watch the movie: HBO Max, Chili, Rakuten

Lastly, we come back to Peter Jackson's films in a nice, compositional bracket. Daniel Day-Lewis is an excellent actor who fully devotes himself to the roles, and has already won three Oscars (same as Jack Nicholson). Few people are also aware that Daniel could have been cast as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy instead of Viggo Mortensen.

Peter Jackson has offered Lewis the role of Aragorn many times. And he consistently refused each time. The actor never wanted to be part of larger film franchises nor participated in settings and universes that did not intrigue him in any way. Moreover, as he said in an interview in 2009, "I wouldn’t really want to be involved in making films I wouldn’t want to go and see." It turns out that the fandom of LOTR doesn't include this legendary actor (similarly to Al Pacino and Star Wars). Mortensen took his chances, becoming Aragorn, cherished by the entire audience.

Jan Tracz

Jan Tracz

Graduated Film Studies (BA and MA) at King's College London, UK. Currently, he writes for Collider, WhyNow, The Upcoming, Ayo News, Interia Film, Przegląd, Film.org.pl, and Gamepressure.com. He has had publications in FIPRESCI, Eye For Film, British Thoughts Magazine, KINO, Magazyn PANI, WP Film, NOIZZ, Papaya Rocks, Tygodnik Solidarnosc, and Filmawka. He has also collaborated with Rock Radio and Movies Room. Conducted interviews with Alejandro González Ińárritu, Lasse Hallström, Michel Franco, Matthew Lewis, and David Thomson. His published works include an essay in the anthology "Nikt Nikomu Nie Tlumaczy: Swiat wedlug Kiepskich w kulturze" (Brak Przypisu Publishing, 2023). Laureate of the Leopold Unger Scholarship in 2023. Member of the Young FIPRESCI Jury during WFF 2023.

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