Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis Reunite for New 'Lord of the Rings' Film Coming in 2026

'The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum' is in the writing and development stage now.

By Michael Hein

A new Lord of the Rings movie is slated for release in 2026, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Andy Serkis. The movie is called The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, and will focus mainly on the character Serkis played in Jackson's original trilogy. The movie is reportedly in the early stages of writing and development, but is expected to premiere in just two years.

Warner Bros. announced The Hunt for Gollum on Thursday during an earnings call, promising an original story backed by the reliable talent fans associate most with the franchise. Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Filippa Boyens "will be involved every step of the way," according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Walsh and Boyens are writing the script along with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, with Serkis reprising his role as Gollum and directing the film.

Zaslav told investors the movie will "explore storylines yet to be told," but so far fans can only guess on further details. J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth is huge, but his fictional history for the world is arguably even bigger, fleshed out in appendices, short stories and reference books like The Silmarillion. If the movie involves Gollum, we know at least that it takes place when he lived in the Third Age. Gollum lived 589 years from the year TA 2430 to the year TA 3019.

It's worth noting that there was a fan film titled The Hunt for Gollum released in 2009, which was about an event that was not depicted in Jackson's film trilogy in the early 2000s. Many fans are guessing this new movie will be about the same chapter of the story, but to do so it will have to contradict the other movies in the series – possibly confusing fans in the process.

In Tolkien's original books, 17 years pass between Bilbo Baggins' 111th birthday and Frodo Baggins' departure from the Shire. During this time, Gandalf goes out to research the One Ring, believing it is safe with Frodo. He asks Aragorn to track down Gollum so they can learn what he knows about the Ring, and Aragorn succeeds. However, many fans are not convinced that a dramatization of that hunt would be enough to sustain an entire feature-length film.

The Lord of the Rings has never gone far from the pop culture zeitgeist since Jackson's movies premiered in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but the franchise saw a particular resurgence in 2022 when Prime Video released its prequel series The Rings of Power, set in Tolkien's Second Age. However, while Amazon has the rights to adapt a small portion of Tolkien's intellectual property, Warner Bros. still has the rights to adapt the main series and the content of The Silmarillion.

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In February of 2023, WB announced plans for "mutliple" new Lord of the Rings films, starting with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim which is slated to premiere on Dec. 13, 2024, in theaters. That animated feature is set about 200 years before the events of The Hobbit. The Hunt for Gollum is the first live-action movie to join this slate since it was announced.

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy are both streaming now on Max. The Rings of Power is streaming on Prime Video. Tolkien's books are available in print, digital and audiobook formats.

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