After 20 minutes of screentime across 5 movies, Lord of the Rings actor Hugo Weaving admits he doesn’t think of his Elrond "with the same sort of stature" as fans do

The Lord of the Rings
(Image credit: New Line Cinema)

It seems that Lord of the Rings actor Hugo Weaving doesn't love Elrond as much as us Tolkien nerds do.

"I haven't seen it, and apologies to Robert. No, I spent too long in Middle-earth, and I don't particularly want to go back there. I love New Zealand, I recently went back to New Zealand," Weaving told RadioTimes when asked if he'd seen The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. 

Robert Aramayo portrays Elrond in The Rings of Power, which is set thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and focuses on the major events of the Second Age of Middle-earth. The cast includes Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows, Sara Zwangobani as Marigold Brandyfoot, Benjamin Walker as Gil-galad, Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor, and Charlie Vickers as Sauron.

Weaving played the half-elven lord in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and reprised the role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Weaving's Elrond is a favorite character among fans, becoming the subject of several popular internet memes and being frequently shared in clips of the films online. Across the five movies though, Weaving only had 20 minutes of actual screentime.

Continued Weaving: "But no, it's funny - I think when you spend so much time on a particular piece, and in one way… it's a big, big film, huge franchise, but for me, kind of, in a funny way, not a role that I think of with the same sort of stature in my head as it might do for fans. So, no, apologies to Robert, but I haven't seen it. I'm sure he's great."

The Rings of Power season 2 is streaming now on Prime Video. For more, check out our The Rings of Power season 2 review, our The Rings of Power season 2 release schedule, and our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video.

Lauren Milici
Senior Writer, Tv & Film

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

Read more
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Peter Jackson reveals his favorite movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it's not the one you're probably expecting
Jamie Campbell Bower in Stranger Things
The Rings of Power newcomer Jamie Campbell Bower has 'revealed' his season 3 character – but it could be a Sauron-style misdirect
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
You probably missed this heartbreaking Celebrimbor detail in The Rings of Power
Jamie Campbell Bower in Stranger Things 4
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 adds Stranger Things star and Eddie Marsan to cast
Annatar and Celebrimbor in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, episode 7
The Rings of Power season 2 had a steep decline in viewership from season 1, but it's not the only show that struggled
Sean Astin and Elijah Wood in The Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood gives unexpected answer on what movie should be removed from cinematic history: "There's nothing pure about it"
Latest in Fantasy Movies
Rachel Zegler in Disney's Snow White
Snow White popcorn buckets are here, but they’re pretty tame compared to Nosferatu and Deadpool
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix wants Daniel Craig to join the cast of Greta Gerwig's Narnia movie – but it's not certain if he'll take it
Zoe Saldaña in Avatar
James Cameron's wife cried for four hours after he showed her Avatar 3: "She kept trying to get her s**t back together"
Charli XCX
Charlie XCX is in talks to star in Greta Gerwig’s The Chronicles of Narnia movie - and that is so Brat
Milla Jovovich in In the Lost Lands
Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin's In The Lost Lands could get an on-screen sequel, and Martin is apparently keen too
Dave Bautista in In the Lost Lands
Dave Bautista says playing a vampire is "at the top of my list" after starring in Resident Evil director’s werewolf fantasy In the Lost Lands
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"