Sean Astin
In 2001, Sean Astin played Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and he kept the role through 2003. The work kept coming after that. In 2014 he joined The Strain as Jim Kent. In 2017 he became Bob Newby on Stranger Things. From late 2024 into early 2025, he played Santa Claus in Elf the Musical on Broadway. Then came a very different job. In September 2025, SAG-AFTRA members elected him president of the union, with about 79% of the vote. He succeeded Fran Drescher. His mother, Patty Duke, led the Screen Actors Guild from 1985 to 1988. Decades later, her son took the same seat.
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn, the ranger with a hidden claim to a throne. Peter Jackson cast him in 1999 as a last-minute replacement, and the role became his breakthrough. In 2005 he made A History of Violence with David Cronenberg. Eastern Promises followed in 2007 and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Two more Oscar nominations followed, for Captain Fantastic in 2016 and Green Book in 2018. In 2020 he made his directing debut with Falling. Then he took on even more. He wrote, directed and produced the Western The Dead Don't Hurt, starred in it and composed its score. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023.
Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood played Frodo Baggins in the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo is the hobbit who carries the Ring, and he stayed at the center of the story for all three films. Wood did not slow down afterward. In 2004 he appeared in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In 2006 he voiced Mumble, the tap-dancing penguin in Happy Feet. On television he starred in the comedy Wilfred from 2011 to 2014, then in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency from 2016 to 2017. More recently he joined the cast of Yellowjackets, appearing from 2023 to 2025.
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen played Gandalf, the wizard who guides the Fellowship, and the role brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was already a stage veteran, knighted in 1991. Gandalf stayed with him. He returned to the role in The Hobbit films from 2012 to 2014. In 2015 he played an aging detective in Mr. Holmes. In 2017 he voiced Cogsworth in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and in 2019 he starred in The Good Liar. Now a familiar role is coming back. He is set to play Magneto again in Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for 2026.
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom played Legolas, the sharp-eyed elf archer, in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy from 2001 to 2003. Big roles followed quickly. He became Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, starting in 2003. In 2004 he played Paris in Troy. In 2013 he made his Broadway debut in Romeo and Juliet. Away from the screen, he was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2009 and received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award in 2015. On television he starred in Amazon's Carnival Row from 2019 to 2023. In 2023 he appeared in Gran Turismo. In 2024 he starred as a boxer in The Cut, which he also produced.
Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett played Galadriel, the luminous elf leader, in all three Lord of the Rings films. Elizabeth had already brought her international attention. What came next was even bigger. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator in 2004. In 2013 she won Best Actress for Blue Jasmine. In 2017 she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. She moved into television as well. In 2020 she played Phyllis Schlafly in the miniseries Mrs. America, and in 2024 she starred in the Apple TV+ miniseries Disclaimer. Both roles brought her Primetime Emmy nominations.
Liv Tyler
In 2001, Liv Tyler starred in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as the elf maiden Arwen Undómiel. She has also been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States since 2003. In 2008 she played Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk. From 2014 to 2017 she was part of HBO's drama The Leftovers. In 2019 she appeared in Ad Astra, and in 2020 she joined Fox's 9-1-1: Lone Star. Then Marvel called again. In 2025 she returned as Betty Ross in Captain America: Brave New World, a role she had first played years earlier.
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Monaghan played Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck, one of the four hobbits, in the trilogy from 2001 to 2003. A few years later he was on another big ensemble show. From 2004 to 2010 he played Charlie Pace on ABC's Lost. He then took viewers into the wild as host of Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, which ran from 2012 to 2016. In 2019 he joined the Star Wars galaxy as Beaumont Kin in The Rise of Skywalker. In 2024 he made his stage debut in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, opposite his former hobbit co-star Billy Boyd. The two also host a podcast together, The Friendship Onion.
Billy Boyd
Billy Boyd played Peregrin "Pippin" Took, the youngest hobbit, starting in 2001. His voice took him further. He voiced Glen and Glenda in Seed of Chucky in 2004 and played G.G. Valentine in the second season of Chucky in 2022. He also returned to Middle-earth in a new way, performing "The Last Goodbye" for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. In 2024 he shared the stage with his former co-star Dominic Monaghan in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In 2025 he played Willard in Washington Black and appeared with Monaghan in Billy and Dom Eat the World.
Hugo Weaving
Hugo Weaving played the half-elven lord Elrond in The Lord of the Rings films, released between 2001 and 2003. Australian audiences already knew him, and he had won his first AACTA Award for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Around the same time as the trilogy he played another famous part, Agent Smith, appearing in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003. In 2005 he took the masked title role in V for Vendetta. In 2011 he played the villain Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. Then he went back to Rivendell. He played Elrond again in The Hobbit trilogy from 2012 to 2014.
Photos: Mooshuu / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; Joe Peacock / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2014: Photo: Mooshuu / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2025: Photo: Joe Peacock / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2008: Photo: dalekhelen / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2025: Photo: ManoSolo13241324 / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
2014: Photo: Gage Skidmore / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2026: Photo: Miguel Discart & Kiri Karma / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2003: Photo: Stefan Servos / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2013: Photo: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2005: Photo: Hengist Decius / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2026: Photo: Mario A. P. / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2005: Photo: Popperipopp / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons; 2023: Photo: Elena Ternovaja / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2003: Photo: Henry Burrows / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2018: Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/greg2600 / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2003: Photo: Stefan Servos / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2010: Photo: Dominic_Monaghan_2009.jpg : U2soul derivative work: RanZag ( talk ) / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2005: Photo: Diane Krauss ( DianeAnna ) / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2025: Photo: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
2003: Photo: modtang / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; 2014: Photo: Siebbi / CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Astin
- https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/sean-astin-elected-sag-aftra-president-rcna231068
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viggo_Mortensen
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Don%27t_Hurt
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Wood
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_McKellen
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Bloom
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Blanchett
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liv_Tyler
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Monaghan
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Boyd
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Weaving
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- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hugo_Weaving_2014.jpg
