Russell Crowe Would Have Matched Tolkien's Aragorn

Before Viggo Mortensen took on Aragorn, several actors were considered for the role, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicolas Cage, Jason Patric and Stuart Townsend. Russell Crowe, fresh from his Academy Award-winning turn in Gladiator, was asked to replace Townsend and was offered the part, a casting many argue would have more closely reflected J.R.R.

Tolkien’s written Aragorn. Tolkien’s Aragorn is a Dúnadan Ranger described as 6'6", a paragon of brutish masculinity with "a pale, stern face and a shaggy head of dark hair flecked with gray," supremely confident about his right to the throne. Peter Jackson’s films present a different figure: Mortensen’s Aragorn is shorter, with flowing brown hair, reticent body language and a more reluctant, contemplative attitude toward kingship, his arc focused heavily on the quest to destroy the One Ring.

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