Vin Diesel has never failed to thrill audiences with his work on action-packed movies such as "Riddick," the billion-dollar "Fast & Furious" franchise, and "Guardians of the Galaxy" where he lent his deep, masculine voice for the lovable character, Groot.
You would think Diesel already played his dream character on the big screen but, it turns out, that's not exactly the case because in an interview with Stephen Colbert on Oct. 14, Diesel's "The Last Witch Hunter" co-star, Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins of Bag End in "The Lord of The Rings" film trilogy, revealed that, not only is the action star "a huge Tolkien nerd" but that during the filming of their Halloween movie, Diesel had asked him to relate to "The Lord of The Rings" franchise director Peter Jackson to let him play Melkor in "The Silmarillion," the five-part posthumously published book of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
Just who is Melkor? Let's establish first that "The Silmarillion" is the Genesis story that connects the entire universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you think the wizards of Tolkien are awesome, then you would believe them to be more fantastic when you read up and discover that they are not wizards, but Maiar who have a special purpose and specialties, as well as discover why Saruman is white, Gandalf is grey and Radagast brown. There are five of them, by the way, who were sent to Middle-earth to oppose Sauron who, in the beginning, was just Melkor's lieutenant. Yes, Melkor is the true dark lord and he was prophesied to return.
There are still doubts as to whether "The Silmarillion" will be adapted to film with Peter Jackson stating that "The Hobbit" trilogy would end his Middle-earth journey, but it doesn't stop the "Fast & Furious" star from expressing his love for Tolkien's work in the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con and more recently in an interview for "The Last Witch Hunter" where he expressed how Tolkien's works, especially "The Silmarillion" had helped him in playing an immortal character. He explains in the interview how Tolkien's works explored death in a unique way, and how he showed that it is mortality, and not immortality that is a gift.
Let's see if Vin Diesel was able to incorporate all that to bring depth to his character along with his masculine charms in his latest film. Diesel acts alongside Michael Caine who played Alfred Pennyworth in "Batman Begins" and its sequels, "Game of Thrones" star Rose Leslie, whose character Ygritte's last words were "You know nothing, Jon Snow" and Elijah Wood.
In "The Last Witch Hunter," Diesel plays a warrior who was cursed with immortality when he slays the Witch Queen and hence spends the next 800 years of his immortality hunting and slaying the remaining witches in our world until he has to face the Witch Queen again, but this time in modern day New York City.
The Last Witch Hunter opens on Oct. 23.
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