The hunt for Gollum is just the beginning. As the next Lord of the Rings film gears up for production later this year, Warner Bros. has revealed that another trip back to Middle-earth is underway.
Tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, the instalment will be written by talk show host and JRR Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert, who can quote entire passages from the novels, alongside his filmmaker son, Peter McGee, and Philippa Boyens. The story is 14 years after the climax of 2003’s Return of the King and follows Andy Serkis’ The Hunt for Gollum, which is slated for release in 2027.
“14 years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure,” reads the official synopsis. “Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”
The news came by way of a video call held on Tolkien Reading Day — a celebration of the author’s work, on the day in the Middle-earth calendar that marks Sauron’s defeat — after The Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson introduced Colbert as his “very special partner” who will help develop the next project following The Hunt for Gollum.
“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” the Late Show host told Jackson. “But 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. It’s basically the chapter ‘Three Is Company’ [Chapter III] through ‘Fog on the Barrow-Downs’ [Chapter VIII]. And I thought, ‘Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. 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?’”
Other details about The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, including a release window and casting, remain under wraps, but it’s safe to assume that Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd will reprise their respective roles as Sam, Merry, and Pippin. While this marks Colbert’s first foray into blockbuster production, he’s had prior experience working with Jackson on 2013’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, albeit in a small capacity. Boyens, in contrast, is a frequent Jackson collaborator, having penned his Lord of the Rings trilogy and Hobbit films.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
