Aragorn is one of the most prominent characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and director Peter Jackson considered a number of well-known actors before hiring Stuart Townsend for the role. Things didn’t work out, as history shows, with Townsend being replaced only days before production began. Viggo Mortensen was cast in the part after Daniel Day-Lewis turned it down a second time, and the actor is now inextricably associated to the character.

Mortensen’s commitment to the character is widely known, but Stuart Townsend, Aragorn’s original actor, has long been a set myth. Dominic Monaghan has now spilled the beans on exactly what transpired.

Monaghan told Manchester Evening News that most of the cast was surprised by the recasting. The cast was informed that Townsend would no longer be working on Lord of the Rings, but the crew refused to explain why. “We didn’t get a chance to say bye to Stu,” Monaghan explains, because everything happened so quickly. Jackson began to question Townsend’s abilities to portray Aragorn due to his youth during pre-production, and when he quit production, the rest of the cast was disappointed and unable to contact Townsend due to the lack of e-mail and mobile phones accessible in New Zealand at the time.

“He left very quickly. I think he was probably sad with how it turned out,” he said. “I obviously can’t speak for him but we were on set and we were coming towards the end of week one and producer Barrie Osborne had said to the four Hobbits, ‘Can you just wait a bit because Peter and I want you to talk about something.’”

“And in my naivety I just thought they were gonna say we had a great week, we love what we see, love you guys, have a great weekend blah blah blah. And unfortunately, they said Stuart had quit the project.”

“We were all stunned, I didn’t think we could be fired then, I thought you were… but you weren’t,” Monaghan continued. “And Sean [Astin] says, “Well, did he quit the project or was he fired?” And I think they were trying to protect Stuart as much as they could. They just said “we’ll let Stuart tell you, but he’s not with us anymore.” We were unable to contact him. Email was very new at the time. He just disappeared.“

Townsend had to cope with yet another recasting a few years later when he was replaced as Fandral in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor due to vague creative issues. Since then, Townsend has worked in a variety of projects, including the ABC drama Betrayal and as Dr. Samuel Wainwright in the second season of Salem.

Mortensen’s dedication to the part of Aragorn was well-known – the actor would wander around the set dressed as the character – and it showed in his dramatic and emotional film performance. It’s reasonable to argue that the Lord of the Rings films wouldn’t be the same without Mortensen’s commitment, but Townsend’s dismissal provides an intriguing view into the difficult process of bringing this mammoth trilogy to the big screen.