Dominic Monaghan reveals big plans for next ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie — including possible return as Merry

Dominic Monaghan isn’t done with Middle-earth just yet.

The “Lord of the Rings” alum, 48, wants to be on the set of “The Hunt for Gollum,” the next film in the fantasy franchise slated for release in Dec. 2027.

“I’m still super tight with Pete Jackson and his team, and I think I will probably go to New Zealand next year when they are filming ‘The Hunt for Gollum,’ which obviously my great friend Andy Serkis is going to star in and direct,” Monaghan exclusively told The Post while promoting his new movie, “Long Shadows.”

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“I think some other people from ‘Lord of the Rings’ are going down there too,” he continued. “I would like to be on set just to lend support to Andy and say hello to people.”

However, Monaghan noted that he probably won’t be in the film since his character, Merry, “isn’t necessarily involved in anything important” at that point in the Middle-earth timeline.

“I think he’s probably still enjoying pints of beer in the local pub and being a young man growing up in The Shire,” Monaghan said. “So we have talked about stuff, and who knows.”

“To be honest, I think everyone in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ is putting a lot of faith behind this Gollum film in the hopes that it shows that there’s an appetite for people to want more ‘Lord of the Rings’ stuff,” Monaghan added.

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“And if that happens and the film is successful and people seem to have voted with their feet to say we would like to consistently go back to Middle-earth, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some Hobbit stories to tell. It’s cozy, right? Why wouldn’t you want some cozy stories?”

Monaghan reiterated that he’d love to witness the making of “The Hunt for Gollum” in the flesh.

“That set visit, hand on my heart, it would be an opportunity to go and see some crew members that are working on the ‘Rings’ trilogy, see Andy, maybe be there over a couple of weekends where we have some dinners,” Monaghan explained. “Because you can have cast members and crew members who’re going to start to get exhausted from the schedule and maybe might benefit from a little bit of moral support and people being there. So it’s honestly for me an opportunity to go down to New Zealand, hopefully when the weather’s still good, see some friends, have some fun.”

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“And listen, if Andy says to me put on a floppy hat and a cape and go stand 300 feet over there and we’ll just see a blurry figure in the distance. So if Andy’s like, ‘You can do something in the background,’ then of course, maybe,” Monaghan stated. “But at this point it’s just an opportunity to go see friends.”

Serkis, 61, is set to direct and star in “The Hunt for Gollum.” Jackson, who directed the original “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, is producing the upcoming movie with his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

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Ian McKellen recently hinted that he and Elijah Wood are returning as Gandalf and Frodo, respectively, in the 2027 film.

Monaghan also revealed to The Post if he’s kept up with the franchise since starring in the original trilogy.

“I’ve seen ‘Rings of Power,’ obviously,” he said of Prime Video’s TV offshoot of the franchise. “It’s not necessarily something that I watch generally. Myself, Elijah, Sean [Astin] and Billy [Boyd] lent our support to kind of say to people, ‘Listen, if it’s not your type of show and you want to protect the Peter Jackson ‘Lord of the Rings’ franchise, that’s fine. You can do that. You don’t have to watch it and you can support the Peter Jackson trilogy as much as you want.'”

“What we were trying to get behind was that it is not permission for you to now spew hate towards these new actors or these new filmmakers,” Monaghan explained to The Post.

“There is room in Middle-earth for everyone, and if someone wants to come at it from a different angle and they want to do an animated version, or they want to do a German version, or they want to do ‘Lord of the Rings’ in space, just let people do it,” he went on. “And if you don’t like it, that’s fine. That is not permission to shout and scream and rant and rave.”

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The “Lost” alum proudly called “The Lord of the Rings” movies “the only project that I’ve done in my entire career that gets stronger and stronger the further that I get away from it.”

“Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy went from being a great film that people seem to like, to a relatively quick kind of modern classic, to a classic, to an out and out stonewall classic piece of benchmark cinema,” Monaghan explained. “And being involved in something like that kind of keeps you in this very exalted, very fortunate position of knowing that you’re lucky enough to be part of the history of that medium. To be involved in something like that is just an actor’s dream come true.”

Monaghan, who has been acting since the late ’90s, acknowledged that he’s been “very lucky” and “very fortunate” in how his career has panned out.

“The money didn’t necessarily dictate the decision. I was lucky enough to start working when I was 18 and did a four-year job, which put me in a position where I could — at the very least — wait a little bit to pick the next job,” he explained. “So from that age onwards, it’s always been making a decision outside of money. And to do that as an actor, at least for me, it’s about the material. You want to read something that seems original and something different from what you’ve done before.”

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Monaghan’s latest gig is his first-ever Western movie, “Long Shadows,” which is set in the fading days of the Wild, Wild West and follows a lone drifter (Blaine Maye) seeking to avenge the brutal murder of his parents. 

“I hadn’t done a Western before, and it felt like something that I was potentially doing as a little tribute to my dad,” said Monaghan. “And the character that I played just seemed to be a little bit of a livewire. He’s clearly struggling with drinking or an overexcess of drinking alcohol. And that makes him someone that’s a little hard to predict. And he’s a bit of a grifter and a bit of a crook at the same time.”

“So I am always looking for some opportunity to play a new character,” Monaghan added. “And he did seem like an original new character to me.“

“Long Shadows” will be released in theaters Friday.