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Martin Freeman is open to playing Bilbo Baggins again

Martin Freeman hasn't ruled out playing Bilbo Baggins again, depending on "who the minds are behind it," and wishes Rings of Power luck

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins

With the Rings of Power coming out soon, the casts of both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy have been inevitably asked to weigh-in on the prequel series. The Rings of Power is set in the Second Age – around 5,000 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings.

Thanks to well, magic, there are still some crossover characters. The elves Galadriel and Elrond are both in The Rings of Power, as are familiar names such as Isildur and the “big bad” Sauron. But does that mean that any character from The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings could pop up? You may remember that The Fellowship of the Ring begins on Bilbo Baggins’ 111 birthday, so hobbits do live longer than modern-day humans, but their life-span is still merely a blip compared to elves.

Anyway, this didn’t stop Metro from asking Martin Freeman, who played Bilbo in the Hobbit trilogy if he would be open to “going on an adventure” with the character again, “maybe in a flash-forward scene” and Freeman responded; “I suppose not having seen the series, I can only wish it well and wish it luck.”

He continued; “I suppose those stories are the kinds of things that are going to be told again and again, in the next – if we survive this long – over the next 300 years. It’s going to be told several more times, in different incarnations. I wish them well, I hope it’s good, like I want everything to be good.” He then added; “Whether I would do it again, it would really depend on who was doing it and why I suppose.”

Martin explained why he could have reservations, over concerns viewers might find it ‘jarring’ if it didn’t make sense for the story. “If it didn’t look conspicuous and if it wasn’t jarring, then maybe so, but anything that pulled the viewer out and [made them] go, ‘Well, that’s a different version,’ that might be a bit weird. But as with all those things, it depends on who the minds are behind it.”

It makes sense for Freeman to be cagey, as it makes little sense for Bilbo to be involved in The Rings of Power in any shape or form. We’ll next be seeing him in Black Panther 2.