Peter Jackson gives“ Hunt for Gollum ”update, teams up with Stephen Colbert to announce new “Lord of the Rings” film

Ryan ColemanWed, March 25, 2026 at 4:34 AM UTC

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Andy Serkis as Gollum in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'Credit: New Line Cinema

Let the hunt officially commence — almost.

Peter Jackson re-emerged from his Hobbit hole to give an exciting update on The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Two years after the announcement of a brand new, live-action LOTR spinoff with Jackson producing and Gollum actor Andy Serkis directing and starring, fans are closer than ever to returning to Middle-earth.

"We've got a lot of the old team back again, familiar faces and some new faces. But Andy's doing a terrific job, it's looking amazing. The script is coming together really well and I think it's going to be a really good film," Jackson teased, before tagging an unexpected, A-list LOTR fan into his front-facing video to follow-up on another announcement — first hinted at back in 2024 — that Gollum "is not the only Tolkien movie that we're developing."

Stephen Colbert, introduced by Oscar winner as his "special partner" in the new-new LOTR film, suddenly popped onto the screen below Jackson's.

The soon-departing host of the canceled Late Show With Stephen Colbert then discussed the film that will follow Gollum, revealed as The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past in a Warner Bros. release sent Tuesday evening.

The same week that Warner Bros. announced The Hunt for Gollum back in 2024, the studio conceded to fan pressure, removing its temporary block of a wildly popular fan-made LOTR riff also called The Hunt for Gollum. The 40ish-minute film centered on Aragorn, the valiant Ranger played by Viggo Mortensen in the film trilogy, carrying out Gandalf's wishes to track down the wily former Hobbit before he can nab the titular ring from Frodo.

It's unclear whether Serkis' Hunt for Gollum plays out the same story, albeit at 1,000 times the budget and in good legal graces with Warner Bros.

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Tuesday's Hunt for Gollum announcement, unfortunately, does not clear up fervent fan speculation over which trilogy stars might be trekking back into the franchise, aside from showing video of Serkis performing motion-capture for the role of Gollum.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf in 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"Credit: Todd Eyre/ Warner Bros

Ian McKellen, who played the wise wizard Gandalf in the Jackson films, kindled hope in hearts across the world when he teased at a fan event last August that "there's a character in [The Hunt for Gollum] called Frodo, and there's a character in the movie called Gandalf."

McKellen's Grey Wanderer and Elijah Wood's unlikely hero from Hobbiton are two of the most beloved characters from the films, even across the entire, ranging mythology originally spun by J.R.R. Tolkein. Warner Bros. would not respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment on McKellen's suggestion that they may return, but Wood took a crack.

"I can neither confirm nor deny. Listen, a wizard is to be trusted. Aside from any of that, I'm not really allowed to confirm," the actor shared at a separate fan event in January. Wood later noted that he "certainly wouldn't want anybody else to play Frodo either as long as I'm alive and able" — a sentiment shared last year by Orlando Bloom, who said of The Hunt for Gollum, "I'd hate to see anyone else play Legolas."

Andy Serkis as the Hobbit Sméagol, before transforming into Gollum in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'Credit: Warner Bros.

Aside from Jackson and Serkis, there are other LOTR O.G.'s back on board for The Hunt for Gollum. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the original trilogy screenplays alongside Jackson and Stephen Sinclair, returned to co-write Gollum. Walsh and Boyens instead co-wrote Gollum with The War of the Rohirrim co-writers Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou.

McKellen also let slip in a 2024 interview that The Hunt for Gollum would be split into two films. It's an assertion that Boyens categorically denied in an interview the same year with Empire. "I can tell you definitively it isn't two films," she said, promising "quite an intense story, which falls after the birthday party of Bilbo and before the Mines of Moria."

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was originally slated for a 2026 premiere. The film will now arrive in theaters on Dec. 17, 2027.

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