Orlando Bloom: A Guide to His 11 Best Movies and TV Shows

Few actors have made bigger splashes with their major career debuts than Orlando Bloom did with his. The actor starred in the first of two big-screen movie trilogy adaptations of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved The Lord of the Rings (and then The Hobbit), among many other Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows.

Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Copeland Bloom (few have a more impressive, or lengthy, name, either) followed up his breakout role as Legolas by collaborating with Oscar-winning director Ridley Scott, making himself a go-to performer for stellar movie ensembles, and earning comparisons to Old Hollywood’s leading men.

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There is no shortage of entertaining Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows on his resume—and one particularly cheeky TV entry in which he pokes some fun at himself and his Pirates of the Caribbean co-star Johnny Depp. Read on for our 11 best suggestions for spending some quality time with Orlando Bloom and a screen near you.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Bloom’s first major role—as Woodland Realm Elf Legolas—was also part of the debut of director Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy. Bloom and Legolas began their J.R.R. Tolkien cinematic lives as part of the titular Fellowship, whose nine members were tasked with traveling to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, lest the Dark Lord Sauron take possession of the talisman and with it, control the fate of Middle-earth.

The Fellowship of the Ring is beloved not just because of director, producer, and co-screenwriter Jackson’s storytelling, but also because of the chemistry among the ensemble cast, which also includes Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, and Sean Bean. Before filming the Tolkien trilogy in his native New Zealand, Jackson had the main cast live and train together for six weeks, learning all about sword fighting, boating, and horse riding, and most importantly, gave them a chance to bond. The movie earned a Best Picture Oscar nominee, along with nominations for Jackson as Best Director and McKellen as Best Supporting Actor.

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Black Hawk Down (2001): Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows

During that same breakout time—in fact, both his 2001 movies were released in December of that year–Bloom worked with another A-list director, Ridley Scott. Scott directed and produced the film adaptation of journalist Mark Bowden’s National Book Award finalist Black Hawk Down, about a Black Hawk helicopter and its U.S. military crew, who were shot down during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in the Somali Civil War.

Bloom played Private First Class Todd Blackburn, an 18-year-old soldier who accidentally falls out of one of the Black Hawks during the mission, forcing his colleagues in a Humvee convoy to peel off and take him to a United Nations-protected airport. The movie, which was nominated for four Oscars and won two, was another that featured Bloom in a large ensemble cast, which included Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Hugh Dancy, Ioan Gruffudd, Tom Sizemore, Tom Hardy, Sam Shepard, Eric Bana, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Ty Burrell.

The real-life Army Ranger Blackburn survived, spoiler alert, and went on to continue working to keep the world safe by working with the Pensacola, Florida Police Department.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Next on the list of Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows is the second movie in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (all three were filmed simultaneously in New Zealand). This film picks up where Peter Jackson left off with The Fellowship of the Ring, as Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), now aided by Gollum (Andy Serkis), continue to make their way to Mordor to destroy the One Ring.

Meanwhile, Legolas (Bloom), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) are off on their own to try to save Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), and they meet up with the resurrected Gandalf, who pledges to help save Middle-earth in the battle of good and evil.

The Two Towers, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, won the awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, and also won a Grammy for Best Score. 

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Ned Kelly (2003): Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows

Known as a “bushranger” film—i.e. a genre of Westerns set in the Australian outback (the “bush”)—this drama tells the story of the titular real world outlaw (played here by Heath Ledger, and once played by Mick Jagger in a 1970 telling of the Kelly legend) who became a local hero as a young boy when he saved another young boy from drowning.

A few years later, Ned is falsely accused and imprisoned for stealing a horse, which sets off his journey from hero to outlaw. And that leads to Ned and his best friend, Joe (Bloom) going on the lam, with a bounty on their heads and a tragic trail of destruction in their wake.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Bloom proved himself to be a reliable star to help kick off another blockbuster movie franchise as a co-star of Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, and Geoffrey Rush in this Disney swashbuckler. Bloom was blacksmith Will Turner, who teamed up with Depp’s charmingly eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow to rescue kidnapped governor’s daughter Elizabeth Swann (Knightley) from the dastardly Captain Barbossa (Rush).

Bloom, whose more traditional swashbuckling hero earned him comparisons to old school Hollywood pirate movie star Errol Flynn, went on to appear in three of the four Pirates sequels, and has indicated he would be willing to sign on for a rumored fifth sequel. So far, the franchise inspired by the Disney theme park attraction of the same name, has earned more than $4 billion at the box office.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows

The final installment of the LOTR trilogy was a satisfying wrap-up to a series that had only gotten better with each movie. In The Return of the King, Frodo, Sam, Legolas, Aragorn, Merry, Pippen, Gimli, and Gandalf forged ahead with their efforts to destroy the One Ring, thwart Sauron, and save Middle-earth, with, let’s just say, a happy ending.

And not just on the screen: Return of the King won all eleven Oscars for which it was nominated, including, finally, a Best Picture statue (the first fantasy film to earn an Academy Award), a Best Director Oscar for Peter Jackson, and Best Adapted Screenplay win for Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh. The movie also won two Grammys, and all four Golden Globe awards it was nominated for, including Best Motion Picture – Drama.

Elizabethtown (2005)

Bloom took a break from franchise films to star in this Cameron Crowe-written and directed romantic dramedy, about a shoe designer named Drew (Bloom), who gets fired after losing nearly a billion dollars for his employer. So distraught that he plans suicide, Drew puts that on hold when he finds out his father died while visiting their former Kentucky hometown.

On his trip to Elizabethtown to return his father’s body to Oregon, Drew met friendly flight attendant Claire (Kirstin Dunst), and they bond when she helps him maneuver death, cremation, and an extended visit with his mother (Susan Sarandon). Judy Greer, Jessica Biel, Alec Baldwin, and former Food Network star Paula Deen co-star, but the spotlight is really on Bloom for the first time in his film career, and he soars in the opportunity.

Extras (2006): Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows

Creator of the original version of The Office, Ricky Gervais, created this TV comedy about Andy, an actor who spends most of his career as an extra, until he eventually becomes a sitcom star. The series, co-created by The Office U.K co-creator Stephan Merchant, featured celebrity guest stars playing heightened versions of themselves, including David Bowie, Daniel Radcliffe, Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ian McKellen.

And Orlando Bloom. In the season two Extras premiere, Bloom appeared in a courtroom drama with Andy’s actor friend Maggie, and he arrogantly refused to believe the assertion that Maggie was not attracted to him. He also was obsessed with dissing the talents and attractiveness of his Pirates of the Caribbean co-star Johnny Depp, telling Maggie all the women on the Pirates set would ignore Depp to come swooning at him. “Willy Wonka?” Bloom mocked. “Johnny Wanker!”

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

This middle entry of director Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movie trilogy (which serves as a prequel to his LOTR trilogy), followed Bilbo Baggins (Elijah Wood) as he tried to take back the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon. The movie, the best of the trilogy, also reunited Wood with LOTR pals Bloom as Legolas and Ian McKellen as Gandalf. 

Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Evangeline Lilly, Richard Armitage, Lee Pacem, Luke Evans, and James Nesbitt joined the ensemble for the prequel, and though much of The Hobbit production, like LOTR, was shot in New Zealand, this story didn’t quite recapture the magic of the Lord of the Rings movies. Still, with notable heroics from Legolas and company, The Hobbitflicks helped form a fine, more complete telling of the Tolkien universe (with assistance from Guillermo del Toro, who joined Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens in writing the screenplay).

Romeo and Juliet (2014): Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows

A filmed version of the Broadway performance starring Bloom and Tony nominee Condola Rashad in the roles of the star-crossed lovers, this Romeo and Juliet sticks to the Shakespearean story and dialogue, but is set in more current times. Not a fan of modern spins on classics? What if we mentioned that Romeo makes his entrance in jeans, riding a motorcycle?

Gran Turismo (2023)

The most recent addition to Orlando Bloom movies and TV shows is Gran Turismo. Bloom played a Nissan marketing executive named Danny Moore, who proposed Nissan’s motorsport division establish a learning academy that would recruit top players of the PlayStation video game Gran Turismo and teach them to become real world race car drivers.

Director Neill Blomkamp made sure the movie lived up to the excitement of the game and the driving of the real-world GT Academy television show, while Bloom, and co-stars David Harbour, Djimon Hounsou, and Archie Madekwe (as Jann Mardenborough, the youngest real-life winner of GT Academy) brought it all with Hollywood-style fun via their performances. Bonus reality touch with the actual Mardenborough playing himself as Madekwe’s stunt double.

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