There was a combination of not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, but also really not wanting to be stuck in Lord of the Rings for the rest of my life, and being desperate to kind of make sure that I could do something else with my life.

Post-Lord of the Rings career
Since Lord of the Rings Astin has continued to work in film and television. Along with the many awards bestowed upon the trilogy particularly its final installment The Return of the King (winner of eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture) Astin received many award nominations for his own performance in Return of the King taking home the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor and awards from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society the Seattle Film Critics the Utah Film Critics Association and the Phoenix Film Critics Society. He narrated the American version of the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor and voices the title character in the animated Disney Channel series Special Agent Oso.

In television he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24 and currently voices Raphael in the 2012 Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. Astin also served as the campaign manager for his friend Democrat Dan Adler a businessman in the entertainment industry for California's 36th congressional district special election 2011.