Wait, is Gandalf Going to be in The New LORD OF THE RINGS Movie?

Published: August 21, 2025

By Mallory Mattingly

Actor Ian McKellan just dropped a major cast update for Andy Serkis’ THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM.

While at the For the Love of Fantasy event in London on Sunday, McKellen teased, “I hear there’s going to be another movie based in Middle-earth, and it’s going to start filming in May. It’s going to be directed by Gollum, and it’s all about Gollum.”

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McKellen then dropped some major news about the cast for the film.

“I’ll tell you two secrets about the casting: There’s a character in the movie called Frodo, and there’s a character in the movie called Gandalf,” McKellen said.

“Apart from that, my lips are sealed!” he concluded.

Although there is no confirmation that Elijah Wood would reprise the role of Frodo Baggins, Wood was “present at the fan event, smiling conspiratorially as McKellen spoke alongside fellow LOTR alums Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and John Rhys-Davies,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

In June, director and actor of THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM, Andy Serkis, spoke with Collider about the upcoming film.

“We’re very early on in the process. We’ve been talking about the film over the course of the last year,” Serkis said. “We’re about to start a period of prep in the next few months or so. We will be shooting in the early to mid-part of next year, I guess, and then it’ll be as long as it takes to shoot, which — it’s a sizable movie — all ready for a December 2027 release.

“I’m incredibly excited to go back and work with my friends and family in New Zealand and actually do something which is, I think, going to be surprising, and yet very much part of the lore and the feel of the trilogy,” he continued. “The sensibility of it will feel, I think, close to that, and yet we’re investigating in greater depth the character formerly known as Smeagol, but mostly known as Gollum.”

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM “is set to fill in the blanks of Gollum’s story following his encounter with Bilbo in The Hobbit, after which he loses the Ring, up until the events of The Lord of the Rings, in which he encounters Frodo,” per IGN.

McKellen shocked the audience at the For the Love of Fantasy event in London after he revealed that Frodo and Gandalf would make their return to Middle Earth.

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