New LotR movie incoming - 2026

[Mordar]

Looks like a new LotR movie is inbound - "The Hunt for Gollum" starring and directed by Smeagol, produced by Jackson.

Hope it minimizes CGI (outside of the lead character of course) and focuses on practical/costume when possible, and no rivers of 100s of gobbos all lined up like a Disney ride to assault our incredibly nimble dwarf hobbit whatever protagonist.

- M

[Zevox]

Uh, why? Everything important about Gollum's story was already in LotR itself.

I mean, I'm a pretty big Tolkien fan, you could definitely sell me on other movies set in Arda, but, why one about Gollum of all characters?

Heck, they released that Gollum video game last year too, and I had the same reaction to when they announced it. Why do the people making these decisions think he's the one to build new LotR media around?

[Metastachydium]

…
There already is a fan movie entitled exactly that. Has been for a decade and a half now. What's happening here?

[pendell]

Who's producing the movie? Amazon, or New Line Cinema? Is Andy serkis reprising the role?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Talakeal]

Who's producing the movie? Amazon, or New Line Cinema? Is Andy serkis reprising the role?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Warner Brothers. Yes, Serkis is starring and directing.

[Mordar]

Who's producing the movie? Amazon, or New Line Cinema? Is Andy serkis reprising the role?

Warner Brothers. Serkis is starring and directing. Sounds like Jackson writing with his two collaborators.

- M

[t209]

I think there was a fan movie with that name.
Someone wanted to canonize it.

[Ionathus]

LotR movies I would rather watch:

• Gandalf: The Lost Years
• Aragorn: The Later Years
• Merry & Pippin Go To The Pub Four Times in One Day
• Tom Bombadil - The Musical!
• The Two Towers Again But Everyone Is Played By Sir Patrick Stewart
• Farmer Maggot: The Early Years
• How Legolas's Father's Mother's Sister's Cousin's Former Roommate Did Something Important, Probably, I Bet It's All There In Appendix Q-A5C
• Two and a Half Hours of Sam Gardening
• Faramir: The Early Years
• The Entire Courtship of Sam and Rosie Cotton
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Horror)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Comedy)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Carrots Grown by Farmer Maggot (Horror/Comedy)

Heck, they released that Gollum video game last year too, and I had the same reaction to when they announced it. Why do the people making these decisions think he's the one to build new LotR media around?

Gollum is memorable, and Andy Serkis is presumably content to keep playing him? I genuinely don't know why this is the direction they're choosing but the actor-willingness-to-actor-recognition-to-actor-pricetag ratio could be a big factor.

[DavidSh]

I wouldn't have thought that Gollum himself would appear much in "The Hunt for Gollum". Rather, the hunters would be the focus. (Is Viggo Mortensen still available?) Just like the statuette appears very little in The Maltese Falcon.

What I'd like to see is a proper version of the Scouring of the Shire. Shoot it like The Seven Samauri.

[Zevox]

Tom Bombadil - The Musical!

So, just any movie about Tom Bombadil, then.

Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

Gollum is memorable, and Andy Serkis is presumably content to keep playing him? I genuinely don't know why this is the direction they're choosing but the actor-willingness-to-actor-recognition-to-actor-pricetag ratio could be a big factor.

I guess that likely factors into the movie, but he didn't have anything to do with the video game.

[Mordar]

LotR movies I would rather watch:

• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Horror)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Comedy)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Carrots Grown by Farmer Maggot (Horror/Comedy)

If you make the last one as a short/cartoon before each of the first two I will buy tickets to those movies.

No more Gandalf though. Or Legolas.

But maybe "The One Where Gimli isn't Presented as a [Joke]" would be a good movie for me, too.

- M

[Bohandas]

LotR movies I would rather watch:

• Gandalf: The Lost Years
• Aragorn: The Later Years
• Merry & Pippin Go To The Pub Four Times in One Day
• Tom Bombadil - The Musical!
• The Two Towers Again But Everyone Is Played By Sir Patrick Stewart
• Farmer Maggot: The Early Years
• How Legolas's Father's Mother's Sister's Cousin's Former Roommate Did Something Important, Probably, I Bet It's All There In Appendix Q-A5C
• Two and a Half Hours of Sam Gardening
• Faramir: The Early Years
• The Entire Courtship of Sam and Rosie Cotton
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Horror)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Comedy)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Carrots Grown by Farmer Maggot (Horror/Comedy)

And on a more serious note, any part of The Silmarillion

[warty goblin]

I can't say I need or want this - we have 3 perfectly good LoTR movies already and the further from the source the adaptations get the worse they become - but if the franchise must be continued for the sake of the almighty shareholders, at least the creative team is strong and the base idea isn't terrible.

One major point in favor is that most of the locations where a Gollum hunt is likely to occur are already well described in the books, and have frequently already been filmed. This reduces the chances for really bad ideas. I also think Serkis is likely to do pretty well by Gollum as a character, and Jackson & co, when not roped in at the last minute, do filmic Tolkien as well as can be expected of anybody. The scope is nicely limited by the existing story, which I expect Jackson & Co will generally respect, and it's a fairly approachable task. It's also a reasonable place to include more of Aragorn and Arwen's backstory, which is good, actually exists in reasonably detailed form, and got rather papered over in the movies because they're side characters.


The downside is that, well, there's not a ton of original material to use, and Tolkien is both stylistically unique and very hard for a modern writer to mimic in big, freestanding blocks. The world view and narrative structure is pretty distinct and hard to capture.

I can't say I'm excited. But my expectations are higher than another Rings of Power type project.

[KorvinStarmast]

Gollum is memorable, and Andy Serkis is presumably content to keep playing him? I genuinely don't know why this is the direction they're choosing but the actor-willingness-to-actor-recognition-to-actor-pricetag ratio could be a big factor.

I am gonna guess that the focus of the story is Aragorn. I doubt Vigo will be back for that.

What I'd like to see is a proper version of the Scouring of the Shire. Shoot it like The Seven Samauri.

Interesting idea. It's been 20 years. Will Sean, Dominic, Billy, and Elijah be able to fill those roles again?

I can't say I'm excited. But my expectations are higher than another Rings of Power type project.

Yeah. Get someone other that Mordred Morfydd to play Galadriel.

[Mordar]

And on a more serious note, any part of The Silmarillion

I think there's a major licensing problem there, right?

- M

[J-H]

Who's the target audience for this?

I'm certainly not in it.

[KorvinStarmast]

Who's the target audience for this?

I'm certainly not in it.

People whose first exposure to the LotR was the films. That is my guess.

[Errorname]

I'm baffled as to why Warners insists on trying to make movies out of appendices instead of just letting someone take another crack at adapting the Lord of the Rings.

[warty goblin]

I'm baffled as to why Warners insists on trying to make movies out of appendices instead of just letting someone take another crack at adapting the Lord of the Rings.

I suspect a few reasons.

1) If all you can do with the Tolkien liscence is remake LoTR every 25 years, it's not worth as much as if you can make other stuff in it. Like it or not we still live in the world of repeated franchise film making, so franchises are gonna be exploited to the max.

2) The Jackson versions are an extremely high bar to clear. I'm not saying they are flawless, but I don't think there's much potential to do a version that's on the whole better. Any attempt to remake them is going to be stupidly expensive, and probably worse because very few movies are better than the Jackson LoTR films.

3) the Jackson versions are still very popular. Any remake is going to get approximately 800,000 hours of memes comparing the remake to the original frame by frame and then explaining why the new one sucks and the director and (particularly the female) cast should be fed feet first to syphilitic wargs.

[Metastachydium]

LotR movies I would rather watch:

• Gandalf: The Lost Years
• Aragorn: The Later Years
• Merry & Pippin Go To The Pub Four Times in One Day
• Tom Bombadil - The Musical!
• The Two Towers Again But Everyone Is Played By Sir Patrick Stewart
• Farmer Maggot: The Early Years
• How Legolas's Father's Mother's Sister's Cousin's Former Roommate Did Something Important, Probably, I Bet It's All There In Appendix Q-A5C
• Two and a Half Hours of Sam Gardening
• Faramir: The Early Years
• The Entire Courtship of Sam and Rosie Cotton
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Horror)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Comedy)

Also:
–Uglûk – The Whole Freakin' Two Weeks (Biopic);
–The Little White Flowers of Minas Morgul – A Case Study in Strategies towards a Rapid Adaptation to the Shadow (Documentary);
–Where Was Erkenbrand when the Westfold Fell?! (Political Propaganda Piece);
–The Wainriders – A Mad Max Story (Self-Explanatory);
–The Sea of Núrnen – The Impact of Large-Scale Agriculture on the Landscape and Fauna of Southern Mordor (Documentary and Political Propaganda Piece).

[*]The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Carrots Grown by Farmer Maggot (Horror/Comedy)

Also also, I don't like you anymore.

I wouldn't have thought that Gollum himself would appear much in "The Hunt for Gollum". Rather, the hunters would be the focus. (Is Viggo Mortensen still available?) Just like the statuette appears very little in The Maltese Falcon.

Yep. I don't think he even appeared in the 2009 version.

Or Legolas.

Come on, I bet they can make him even chubbier and (somehow also) even more Wuxia-flavoured than in the last one!

Yeah. Get someone other that Mordred Morfydd to play Galadriel.

I mean, I'm pretty sure none of the stupid things her "I swim back and romance Sauron or whatever" Galadriel did was her idea.

and the director and (particularly the female) cast should be fed feet first to syphilitic wargs.

On the one hand, given how well Hollywood Writer's Cherished OC no. 49337-to-49357 class additions to preexisting stories tend to go, and how tempting it is to make most of those female in any given work based on Tolkien, I can understand the frustration of many such people; on the other hand, man, the parts of the internet angry about these things you visit is tame.

[t209]

Come on, I bet they can make him even chubbier and (somehow also) even more Wuxia-flavoured than in the last one!

For some reason, you just give an unintentional reference to Sammo Hung.

[Arcane_Secrets]

LotR movies I would rather watch:

• Gandalf: The Lost Years
• Aragorn: The Later Years
• Merry & Pippin Go To The Pub Four Times in One Day
• Tom Bombadil - The Musical!
• The Two Towers Again But Everyone Is Played By Sir Patrick Stewart
• Farmer Maggot: The Early Years
• How Legolas's Father's Mother's Sister's Cousin's Former Roommate Did Something Important, Probably, I Bet It's All There In Appendix Q-A5C
• Two and a Half Hours of Sam Gardening
• Faramir: The Early Years
• The Entire Courtship of Sam and Rosie Cotton
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Horror)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Victims of Shelob (Comedy)
• The Last Ten Minutes of the Lives of Fifteen Random Carrots Grown by Farmer Maggot (Horror/Comedy)

Gollum is memorable, and Andy Serkis is presumably content to keep playing him? I genuinely don't know why this is the direction they're choosing but the actor-willingness-to-actor-recognition-to-actor-pricetag ratio could be a big factor.

I doubt Rings of Power will last this long but if they did a prequel about the fall of Numenor including Sauron giving the Rings of Power to the future Nazgul (especially since one of them was a Numenorean king's brother iirc) and the actual, full, battle against him I'd absolutely watch that.

However this...no. Please don't.

[KorvinStarmast]

–The Wainriders – A Mad Max Story (Self-Explanatory);

Would probably watch that.

I mean, I'm pretty sure none of the stupid things her "I swim back and romance Sauron or whatever" Galadriel did was her idea.

Galadriel is a particular person, and Mordred doesn't fill the boots well.
Tom Cruise made a Jack Reacher movie. It was an almost. He tried hard but it didn't work for me.
They finally got a big fella to play Jack Reacher and it worked. (Not saying season 2 was great, but it still felt like Reacher).

On the one hand, given how well Hollywood Writer's Cherished OC no. 49337-to-49357 class additions to preexisting stories tend to go, and how tempting it is to make most of those female in any given work based on Tolkien, I can understand the frustration of many such people; on the other hand, man, the parts of the internet angry about these things you visit is tame.

They messed up the hobbit precursors (sadly) and it had nothing to do with the lead hobbit being female. (And I think I'm glad I don't visit those corners of the internet).

The movie I want to see is the film version of Cassandra Claire's Very Secret Diaries.

[Eldan]

Wainriders is definitely how I would approach it. Pick some random unimportant characters who are in some less discussed theatre of the ring war and tell their story. Rangers of the North. Or the defence of Erebor. Or a story told in the Sauron-worshipping East. Or Southern Gondor defending against corsairs.

[Metastachydium]

Galadriel is a particular person, and Mordred doesn't fill the boots well.
Tom Cruise made a Jack Reacher movie. It was an almost. He tried hard but it didn't work for me.
They finally got a big fella to play Jack Reacher and it worked. (Not saying season 2 was great, but it still felt like Reacher).

That's fair enough. It appears they went, like, "well, she's female, blond and we can afford to hire her, no questions asked – I can't see how that could not cut it". But comparing her to Tom Cruise is still unwarranted (man, do I hate that guy!).

The movie I want to see is the film version of Cassandra Claire's Very Secret Diaries.

Damn. I forgot those existed! Sadly, I'm not sure they'd work very well in a visual medium.

Wainriders is definitely how I would approach it. Pick some random unimportant characters who are in some less discussed theatre of the ring war and tell their story. Rangers of the North. Or the defence of Erebor. Or a story told in the Sauron-worshipping East. Or Southern Gondor defending against corsairs.

East is especially rewarding in that way, what with having all those misplaced Wizards. I kinda like the fan theory reconciling Tolkien's "they probably failed like Saruman" with Tolkien's "but maybe they didn't, after all" through positing they set them up as rival dark lords, semi-acccidentally dividing up Sauron's available manpower and limiting his influence by going bad.