This Actor Was Cast as Aragorn in 'The Lord of the Rings' at 27 and Spent Months Rehearsing for the Role – Then Viggo Mortensen Replaced Him Just as Filming Began: Photos of the Man Who 'Didn’t Look Right'

Months of preparation had already immersed one young actor in Peter Jackson's ambitious "The Lord of the Rings" production when his journey suddenly ended. The man who nearly became Aragorn remained part of its behind-the-scenes history — and readers can find his photos below.

"The Lord of the Rings" brought J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth to the big screen through a trilogy following the struggle to destroy the One Ring and defeat the forces of Sauron.

Director Peter Jackson's films would become closely associated with the actors who inhabited that world, including Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, yet the role of the future king of Gondor had originally belonged to someone else.

At 27, an Irish actor had been chosen by Jackson for the part and traveled to New Zealand, where he spent roughly two months rehearsing and training alongside the cast. By the time cameras were preparing to roll, he was no outsider waiting to join an established group.

Instead, the Hollywood star had already become part of the ensemble, making what happened next difficult not only for him but also for those who had trained and prepared beside him.

According to John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli, Jackson recognized relatively early that his original Aragorn was not developing the character in the direction he wanted. Changing course was nevertheless a significant decision because filming was beginning and pre-production was already complete.

Meanwhile, the 27-year-old actor had spent months building relationships with castmates who expected to make the trilogy alongside him. But behind the scenes, there were signs that the problem extended to how the young performer inhabited the role.

Sean Astin, who portrayed Samwise Gamgee, later recalled in his 2004 memoir, "There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale," watching the young Irish talent struggle during costume fittings as the filmmakers tried to establish Aragorn's appearance. Astin wrote of his former co-star:

"He just didn't look right, didn't feel right, and he couldn't explain what needed to be done to correct the problem."

Jackson and costume designer Ngila Dickson reportedly attempted to work through the issue with the 27-year-old actor, but Astin remembered a performer who seemed unable to settle comfortably into the process.

Although he acknowledged the pain the actor experienced when he was eventually dismissed, Astin was candid about what he had witnessed beforehand, describing him as "a black hole of negative creative energy." "I kept wondering why he couldn't just relax and enjoy the process," Astin added.

His recollections also suggested that the difficulty was more complicated than simple unwillingness. Astin remembered seeing the actor wrestling with how to approach Aragorn and believed he understood exactly how consequential the opportunity could become.

The role carried the possibility of establishing the 27-year-old as a major movie star if the trilogy succeeded, adding another dimension to a character he was already struggling to unlock.

"You could just see him struggling to figure out the character, and he was so connected to the nature of the struggle that the solution wasn't presenting itself," Astin recalled.

He wondered whether the magnitude of the opportunity had become part of the problem, while also considering another possibility — Jackson may simply have concluded that the actor's interpretation did not fit the production he was building.

Whatever combination of factors brought Jackson to that point, the director decided Aragorn needed to be recast just as filming was beginning. Rhys-Davies later supported the choice despite the disruption it caused, saying, "It was the right decision. If a director doesn't cast right, he's just burdening himself."

Mortensen, meanwhile, said he never sought a detailed explanation for what had happened before his arrival and resisted judging the actor whose role he inherited.

Making that call left another immediate problem, however, because one of the trilogy's central roles now needed a replacement with almost no time to spare.

Producer Mark Ordesky was in London when he received a late-night call informing him of Jackson's decision, and he remembered the situation as "scary."

He began drawing up lists of possible replacements, with Russell Crowe and Jason Patric among the names considered, while Jackson had reportedly also offered the role to Daniel Day-Lewis. Meanwhile, the director and his wife and creative collaborator, Fran Walsh, were already considering Mortensen.

Considerably older than the departing actor, Mortensen arrived in New Zealand without having shared the months of preparation that had brought the rest of the group together.

The recasting therefore created a social challenge alongside the practical one — he was taking over from someone the cast already knew at the moment everyone was supposed to begin working as an ensemble.

Rhys-Davies recalled the uneasiness surrounding the departure, while Mortensen himself later acknowledged that stepping into another performer's place felt uncomfortable from the beginning.

"When I was told that I would be replacing someone I felt awkward about it," Mortensen revealed in a 2020 interview. "I wondered if I would meet the actor but he was gone when I got there." However, there was little opportunity to dwell on the circumstances once he arrived.

He threw himself into the physical demands of Aragorn and, according to Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry, "very quickly ingrained himself with the rest of the cast." With filming already upon them, those relationships developed while the work itself was underway.

Mortensen, meanwhile, said he never sought a detailed explanation for what had happened before his arrival and resisted judging the actor whose role he inherited. He shared:

"I didn't inquire too much about it. He was part of the team. I am sure he would have done a great job. He's a good actor. I don't know how it went down."

He eventually encountered his predecessor in Los Angeles after production had finished and said hello. "I hear he's a nice guy and I am sorry that happened," Mortensen noted during the same 2020 interview.

The actor at the center of this story is none other than Stuart Townsend, who would become known for films including "Queen of the Damned."

Before Mortensen became inseparable from Aragorn in the public imagination, Townsend had been Jackson's original choice, had relocated to New Zealand, and spent months preparing to lead the Fellowship through Middle-earth.

His dismissal came before audiences ever had the opportunity to see what his Aragorn might have looked like on screen, leaving accounts from those rehearsals and fittings as part of the trilogy's behind-the-scenes history.

Photos of Townsend, the 27-year-old Irish actor originally cast as Aragorn, and Viggo Mortensen, who replaced him as filming began, can be found below

Viggo Mortensen

Stuart Townsend