A new Lord of the Rings film is going to happen, it will take place after the events of The Return of the King, and will feature Hobbit descendants of the Fellowship.
Yesterday evening, Warner Bros. revealed that Stephen Colbert and his son are developing a brand new Lord of the Rings movie. The announcement last night was made via Warner Bros. many social media accounts, and Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee will serve alongside Colbert as co-writers. The new film will be the second of two upcoming films in the blockbuster franchise, after The Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum, which is currently in development from director Andy Serkis (who also plays the titular role). One of the announcement posts can be seen below.
The social media video announcement opened with Director Peter Jackson giving a quick update about the next film in the franchise. Jackson said Andy Serkis’ The Hunt for Gollum is coming along swimmingly, and it’s set for a 2027 release. Jackson noted, “Andy is 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.”
He continued with a tease on his next project, which is now codenamed The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past, and it’s a film that will take place 14 years after the passing of the heroic Hobbits of the Fellowship (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin). The new film is set to follow Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was lost before it started.
Stephen Colbert, who’s best known for his role as the Late Night host, said in the social media post, “The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship [of the Ring] that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day,” and he wondered, “Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?” This was the thought process behind the new film, and upon realizing there was something there, he recruited his son Peter (who’s a film writer) to help.
Colbert then explained, “It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call, but about two years ago I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it, and ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop this story.”
The next film in the Lord of the Rings franchise, The Hunt for Gollum, follows Aragorn and Gandalf’s quest to search for Gollum to learn more information about Bilbo’s ring, which turns out to be the One Ring that threatens all of Middle-Earth. The Hunt for Gollum lands in theatres on December 17, and The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past hasn’t even started film production, so it’s still a far way from seeing release.
