After the massive success of Peter Jackson’s original The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, it only made sense that Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema would want to continue to develop movies for the franchise, resulting in Jackson making The Hobbit trilogy. The inherent nature of that story and its timeline firmly placed it before the events of The Lord of the Rings, and we were well aware of how we’d largely be meeting new characters, or in the case of Bilbo Baggins, we’d have a new performer step in. However, with new Lord of the Rings movies on the way, there’s been a lot more questions about which characters and actors we’d get to spend more time with.
One of the new movies is The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which will be directed by Andy Serkis. With the timeline of this movie falling in line with events that happened in the original The Fellowship of the Ring novel, we’ll be seeing a mix of returning actors and fresh faces, such as Jamie Dornan replacing Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. Another movie is also in the works, which is being written by Stephen Colbert, Peter McGee, and Philippa Boyens, and takes place 14 years after Frodo left Middle-earth.
Despite the timeline of the upcoming movie seemingly taking place after Frodo’s departure, actor Elijah Wood shared with The Direct that there is a plan in place for him to return. He did note, though, that the movie hasn’t officially been greenlit, so it’s currently unknown if everything will officially come to fruition:
“We’re not there yet… But listen, I think the implication is that the stories that Stephen [Colbert] wants to tell, which are the six chapters that were not committed to film in Fellowship of the Ring, largely because they would have slowed the process of the journey down, because when he leaves Bag End and the Shire, and he has to get to Bree, if it had gone the meandering way that it does in the books, it just would have taken a long time to get to Bree, and… it would have killed momentum.”
Wood’s answer also provides some insight into how he could appear, with Colbert’s movie set to include elements that were scrapped from the adaptation of Fellowship. The Hunt for Gollum has a bit more definitive of a timeline – taking place between Bilbo’s 111th birthday and when Frodo leaves The Shire. In the first movie, it seemed like it only took days, but in the novel, it was a 17-year gap. Wood is confirmed to return for The Hunt for Gollum.
Even if Wood’s official return isn’t yet definitive, he seems just as excited about the new endeavor as we are:
“But I think the idea of telling the story of what happens in those six chapters is really exciting, and I think really exciting for fans, and I think what Stephen and his son have crafted and what they’re working through is really rich and interesting, and it certainly includes all those characters. So, a script has to be written, we have to go through a process and read it, and it has to get a green light and all those things, but certainly in theory, yeah. And I’m beyond thrilled that it’s Stephen and his son doing it. It’s in the best Tolkien scholarly hands.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is set to release in December 2027, but Colbert’s film doesn’t have an official release date.
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