By Mallory Mattingly
Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema announced that LORD OF THE RINGS: THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM will release on Dec. 17, 2027.
The film will be directed by Andy Serkis, who will also reprise his iconic role of Gollum. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will produce, and Walsh and Boyens will write the script.
“THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM will depict how Gandalf’s research about the One Ring led him to seek Gollum out, as the wizard sought to confirm the dangers he suspected,” a synopsis from MovieWeb reads. “This means that THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM will be set after Bilbo’s 111th Birthday Party, which was seen at the beginning of THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. However, it will be before Gandalf returns to Frodo years later when he explains the Ring’s danger to the hobbit and sends him and Samwise Gamgee on their initial journey to the village of Bree outside the Shire.”
Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema have set a Dec. 17, 2027 theatrical release for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’
More details here: https://t.co/ndlpdrfyMS pic.twitter.com/fGPNx5eNnp
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 8, 2025
Boyens spoke with Empire Magazine and revealed the THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM is “quite an intense story, which falls after the birthday party of Bilbo and before the Mines Of Moria. It’s a specific chunk of incredible untold story, told through the perspective of this incredible creature.”
There were talks that THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM would be a two-part film, but Boyens debunked that rumor.
“I can tell you definitively it isn’t two films!” she declared. “That was a genuine misunderstanding that happened because we’ve begun to work, conceptually, on two different live-action films. The first being THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM, the second one still to be confirmed.”
Related: Andy Serkis Set to Star in, Direct New LORD OF THE RINGS Movie
However, there are still good reasons as to why people thought it would be a two-part film.
“We’re playing around with a number of ideas, but most of those ideas do include Gandalf,” Boyens said. “So Gandalf would potentially return for two live-action films.”
“We have an absolute banger of a second film that would just be incredible as an anime,” she added. “But let’s see if there’s an appetite for it.”
Per Variety, original cast members including Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) have all said they would like to return for THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM, though no casting has been disclosed.
Though it’s been over 20 years since the original LORD OF THE RINGS movies release, the franchise continues to draw a massive fanbase, giving THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM a good chance of success.
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