In 2024, we learned that Warner Bros. had greenlit The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The first movie set in Middle-earth since 2014's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the story will play out before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Andy Serkis is stepping behind the camera to direct, and he'll also reprise his role as Gollum. Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, who penned The Lord of the Rings trilogy, are penning the screenplay, along with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou (The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim).
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit director Peter Jackson, meanwhile, is producing the project, with the idea being for this to usher in a new wave of big-screen tales based on author J. R. R. Tolkien's work.
In terms of the movie's cast, Serkis and Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf the Grey) are the only ones currently confirmed to return (Elijah Wood has strongly hinted at his return as Frodo), while a younger Aragorn is also in the process of being cast.
TheOneRing.net (via SFFGazette.com) has revealed a potential synopsis for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, revealing several key details about the upcoming prequel:
Before the Fellowship, one creature’s obsession holds the key to Middle-earth’s survival — or its demise. In The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, we meet young Smeagol — an outsider drawn to trinkets and mischief — long before The One Ring consumed him and began his tragic descent into the tortured, deceitful creature Gollum. With the ring lost and carried away by Bilbo Baggins, Gollum finds himself compelled to leave his cave in search of it.
Gandalf the Grey calls upon Aragorn, still known as the ranger Strider, to track the elusive creature whose knowledge of the whereabouts of the ring could tip the balance toward the Dark Lord Sauron. Set in the shadowed time between Bilbo’s birthday disappearance and the Fellowship’s formation, this perilous journey through Middle-earth’s darkest corners reveals untold truths, tests the resolve of its future king, and explores the fractured soul and backstory of Gollum, one of Tolkien’s most enigmatic characters.
Directed by original cast member Andy Serkis, produced by Peter Jackson, and written & produced by Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens — the creative team behind the Oscar-winning trilogy — this live-action movie bridges the beloved films with new characters, returning heroes, and a deeply engaging origin story that resets the stage for, and changes everything you know about the legendary Lord of the Rings trilogy.
It sounds like we'll be spending quite a lot of time with the young Smeagol before he eventually stumbles across The One Ring. From there, the story will seemingly shift to Aragorn's hunt for Gollum (hence the title), with the action set specifically during "the shadowed time between Bilbo’s birthday disappearance and the Fellowship’s formation."
That's a pretty good indication we'll also get to see Bilbo Baggins. Who will play him—Ian Holm passed away in 2020, and Martin Freeman played a younger version in The Hobbit movies—remains to be seen.
Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has struggled to step out of the shadow cast by fantasy series like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and hasn't been the game-changing hit that Amazon expected. This movie, however, does have the potential to reignite interest in Middle-earth.
Keep checking back here for updates on The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum ahead of its December 17, 2027, release as we have them.