Viggo Mortensen revealed in an interview with GQ UK magazine that he used Aragorn’s iconic sword Andúril from “Lord of the Rings” in his latest movie, “The Dead Don’t Hurt.” Mortensen wrote and directed the 19th century Western, in which he stars as a Danish immigrant separated from his love (Vicky Krieps) during the Civil War.

For one fantasy sequence in the film, Mortensen asked his “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson if he had his permission to use Aragorn’s sword again on screen. Mortensen played the character in Jackson’s original “Rings” trilogy and kept the sword after production wrapped.

“We had everything for this sequence with a knight. We had found this great, spirited horse, the right kind of saddle, and we made a medieval kind of blanket, and we had the costume for the knight,” Mortensen explained. “Everything was right, and then I said, well, we should have a sword. And I did look and there were some good ones and I thought, well, it might be kind of good to use [Aragorn’s sword] that I had because it’s really good. But I knew I would have to ask permission because I’m sure somebody would notice it, even if you only see it for a few seconds, it’s not really essential to the scene and certainly not to the movie, it’s just something in passing that you either see or you don’t.”

“I did ask Peter Jackson if he’d be all right with it, and he said, ‘Well, is it very important in the story?’ I said, no, it’s not, actually,” Mortensen continued. “You hardly notice it, but somebody will, probably. He said it was okay with him but that I should ask the movie company. So I contacted them and they were fine with it. They realized it wasn’t essential, it wasn’t going to draw a lot of attention to itself. And they were very nice about it, and they gave us permission. That’s why we did it, just because it seemed right. It was kind of a last-minute accident.”

Jackson is returning to Middle-Earth as the producer of a new “Lord of the Rings” movie that is going to be directed by Gollum actor Andy Serkis. The movie, “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” is being eyed for a 2026 theatrical release. Would Mortensen return as Aragorn? He doesn’t seem opposed, but the story would have to make sense.

“I don’t know exactly what the story is, I haven’t heard,” he said. “Maybe I’ll hear about it eventually. I like playing that character. I learned a lot playing the character. I enjoyed it a lot. I would only do it if I was right for it in terms of, you know, the age I am now and so forth. I would only do it if I was right for the character. It would be silly to do it otherwise.”

“The Dead Don’t Hurt” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The film is opening in theaters May 31. Head over to GQ UK’s website to read Mortensen’s interview in its entirety.

Nigeria adopted a new national anthem on Wednesday after lawmakers passed a law that replaced the current one with a version dropped nearly a half-century ago, sparking widespread criticism about how the law was hastily passed without much public input.

President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the law comes a day after it was approved by both chambers of Nigeria’s National Assembly, which is dominated by the governing party. The federal lawmakers introduced and passed the bill in less than a week, an unusually fast process for important bills that usually take weeks or months to be considered.

MEGHAN MARKLE STIRS CONTROVERSY DURING NIGERIA TRIP BY WEARING DRESS CALLED ‘WINDSOR’

The “Arise, O Compatriots” anthem being replaced had been in use since 1978, when it was introduced by the military government. The anthem was composed at a time when the country was reeling from a deadly civil war and calls on Nigerians to “serve our fatherland with love and strength” and not to let “the labor of our heroes past (to be) in vain.”

The new version that takes immediate effect was first introduced in 1960 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain before it was dropped by the military. Titled “Nigeria We Hail Thee,” it was written by Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate who was living in Nigeria at the time.

The new anthem was played publicly for the first time at a legislative session attended by Tinubu, who marked his one year in office as president on Wednesday.

Many Nigerians, however, took to social media to say they won’t be singing the new national anthem, among them Oby Ezekwesili, a former education minister and presidential aspirant who said that the new law shows that the country’s political class doesn’t care about the public interest.

“In a 21st Century Nigeria, the country’s political class found a colonial National Anthem that has pejorative words like “Native Land” and “Tribes” to be admirable enough to foist on our Citizens without their consent,” Ezekwesili posted on X.

Supporters of the new anthem, however, argued it was wrong for the country to have adopted an anthem introduced by the military.

“Anthems are ideological recitations that help the people to be more focused. It was a very sad development for the military to have changed the anthem,” public affairs analyst Frank Tietie said.

It’s May 30 and it’s a week to go before the European elections. Across Europe, people are bracing for a surge of support for the far-right in the European Parliament. But what of the far left? It’s a small but loud faction, drawing the support of many young voters. It’s also the only group on the left of the political spectrum that is expected to gain seats. 

We also discussed the global race for AI and the European Commission’s attempts to remain competitive. 

This podcast is also produced by the journalist Eleonora Vasques and the sound engineer Zacharia Vigneron. Music by Alexandre Jas.

Additional sources • Zacharia Vigneron