You're "goddamn right" Sean Astin expects better pay for more Lord Of The Rings movies

In 2017, the actor revealed he earned around $250,000 for a year and a half of work on the films and no residuals. Unfortunately, he bought a house with a $250,000-a-year mortgage right before the production began. “I did the audition process and got offered Lord Of The Rings, and it was an offer for $250,000 for a year and a half,” he told the Jim And Sam Show in 2017. “And I was like ‘Wait a minute, my pen signed this contract which obligated me to $250,000 a year, and I’m gonna sign this contract which will make it so that I absolutely cannot satisfy that other thing.'”

Astin has yet to sign on to the upcoming Lord Of The Rings prequel, The Hunt For Gollum, nor its Stephen Colbert-penned sequel, Shadow Of The Past. However, he doesn’t “think anybody is opposed to it” as the whole cast would “love to connect to those characters, particularly if it’s done with such sensitivity as we heard.” However, The Guardian‘s Steve Rose asks if he expects to be better paid this time. “Goddamn right,” Astin returns. 

Astin is hardly the only member of the Rings extended family to go public about their surprisingly low pay for the series. Shortly after the films were released, made billions, and won Oscars, director Peter Jackson sued New Line in 2005, claiming he was underpaid by $100 million. In 2019, Orlando Bloom told Howard Stern that he was paid $175,000 for all three movies. Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett took the job because she “wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead.” 

“I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears,” she said on a 2024 Watch What Happens Live. “No one got paid anything!”