‘Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’ – Andy Serkis Returns as the Corrupted Hobbit
Last year, Warner Bros. announced new Peter Jackson LoTR Movies; now one has been confirmed. Here’s what we know about The Hunt for Gollum.
In the first update since the new slate was announced last year, the first of the two new Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies has been announced. Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will “explore storylines yet to be told,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared during an earnings call this morning.
Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing. According to Zaslav, they will “be involved every step of the way.” The Hunt for Gollum will be directed by Andy Serkis, who brought the character to the screen in 2001 in The Two Towers. He will also reprise his role in the new movie.
The project is in the very early stages. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, along with Phoebe Gittins (The Sorrows) and Arty Papageorgiou (The Merlin Saga), are currently working on the script. It’s expected to be released in theaters in 2026.
What Could The Hunt for Gollum Be About?
The films haven’t explored Sméagol’s pre-ring-obsessed life outside of a flashback, so there are some possibilities there. He was a Stoorish hobbit raised by his grandmother before becoming the third Bearer of the One Ring (after Sauron and Isildur) and losing his sanity to it.
He was first exposed to the ring’s evil when his cousin fished it out of a river. Sméagol fell under its spell, and when his cousin refused to hand it over, he flew into a rage and choked him to death. Once corrupted by its power, he was banished from his village.
Turned out of his grandmother’s hobbit hole, Sméagol was forced to find a new home in a cave in the Misty Mountains. The ring not only tore his mind apart, but it also gave him a long life of insanity filled with a singular obsession. He lived in his cave alone for nearly 400 years before Bilbo Baggins claimed the ring.
That’s what we’ve seen. Maybe we’ll be getting more of his life as a Hobbit, though two hours of his fall into madness could be a thing. As long as it has a lot of songs about killing fish, I’m all for it.
