In news it's fair to say that no one saw coming, Warner Bros. has announced (via SFFGazette.com) that The Late Show host Stephen Colbert and his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, are writing The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past.
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit director Peter Jackson opened the video by sharing an update on The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, revealing, "Andy is doing a terrific job. It’s looking amazing. The script is coming together really well, and I think it’s going to be a really good film."
The filmmaker went on to say that he has a "very special partner" working on the next Middle-earth-set movie, revealing that Colbert, a J. R. R. Tolkien superfan, is developing a sequel that is rooted in chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring that didn't make it into the 2001 movie.
"The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in ['The Fellowship of the Ring'] that ya’ll never developed into the first movie back in the day," Colbert shared. "It’s basically the chapter 'Three is Company' [Chapter III] through 'Fog on the Barrow-Downs' [Chapter VIII]."
"And I thought, 'Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?'"
What does that mean? Well, the logline confirms that The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past is set fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, as Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.
That does seem to contradict what Jackson and Colbert discuss in the video below. It could be that the future setting is a framing device, with much of the story taking place in flashbacks to the chapters missing from The Fellowship of the Ring. That means potentially seeing Barrow-wights, Tom Bombadil, and Goldberry.
Over the last two years, Colbert and McGee have worked with The Lord of the Rings screenwriter Philippa Boyens to develop a script. McGee's credits include work on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Outer Banks, and The Righteous Gemstones.
While not confirmed, we can presumably expect Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd to reprise their roles as Sam, Merry, and Pippin. They'll likely be de-aged for any flashbacks.
Stay tuned for updates on The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past as we have them.