Orlando Bloom on Legolas role: ‘Hate to see’ recasting

Orlando Bloom wants to play Legolas again in the upcoming Lord of the Rings film but admitted he hasn't been approached for it. Photo / Getty Images

Orlando Bloom would “hate” to see someone else play Legolas in a new Lord of the Rings film.

The 48-year-old actor portrayed the elf in three Lord of the Rings films in the early 2000s and again in The Hobbit films a decade later, and while his former co-star Andy Serkis is returning to J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world with The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, he insisted he hasn’t been approached to be part of the project.

Asked about the film on the Today programme, he said: “I have not heard a peep, actually. I don’t know. I know it’s focusing on Gollum, so anything’s possible.

“It’s such an amazing part. I’m so grateful to have been a part of those movies. But I haven’t heard.

“Listen, I’d hate to see anyone else play Legolas, you know what I mean? What are they going to do? Are they going to put somebody else in as Legolas?

“With AI [artificial intelligence], they can do anything these days!”

But he jokingly quipped that AI hadn’t been part of showing his extreme physical transformation in his latest film The Cut.

He added: “I didn’t do that in The Cut, by the way.”