During an earnings call on May 9th, Warner Bros CEO (and “courageous” serial movie canceller) David Zaslav confirmed the studio has brought back Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to develop a new series of Middle-earth films for the studio, with the first one tentatively being titled The Hunt for Gollum which will be directed by Andy Serkis. This will be the first of a slate of films that were previously announced back in winter 2023 which we wrote about.

Zaslav stated the new slate of films are still in the early stages of development but they’re targeting a 2026 release window and the stories in this batch of films will explore storylines yet to be told. Since we know the first one will be about Gollum, it’ll likely be about Gandalf and Aragorn’s search for Gollum during the early chapters of Fellowship of the Ring.

He went on to say that Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens, who all worked on the original Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, would be involved “in every step of the way”, with Walsh and Boyens confirmed to be writing the scripts alongside Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, who are co-writing the upcoming anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens issued the following statement:

“It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker – Gollum! As life long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”

Andy Serkis also put out a statement, stating:

““Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa,”

In my report in 2023, I wrote that the idea of Warner Bros developing more Middle-earth films actually worried me, as I feared they would do quick and easy films based on established characters, akin to Solo: A Star Wars Story. It was a concept that Rings of Power showrunners actually moved against when pitching their series to Amazon, as other creatives were pitching Aragorn or Gimli spinoff series (see the 2023 article linked above for the full story there). I’m just not so certain a movie about Gollum is the right move if I’m being honest. There’s a wealth of plotlines and stories that Tolkien alluded to in his works and explored in his appendices and while this isn’t an origin story, it just feels out of touch and dare I say, lazy.

Andy Serkis received heaps of praise for his performance of Gollum, but too much of a good thing may sour the overall experience. Plus, I’m not convinced with Serkis as a director at this point and with a 2026 target release window, I worry this film will be heavy on the CGI, as that’s a very short production window and it screams of desperation on Zaslav’s part for a financial hit sooner rather than later. And while getting Serkis back as Gollum is easy thanks to motion capture, getting Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellen back as Aragorn and Gandalf may be harder due to them being much older and de-aging costing a lot and it creates an uncanny valley effect that can ruin a movie, which means that the characters will more than likely be recast, which may be a harder sell for fans. Time will tell if Warner and the old guard can recapture the lightning in the bottle, but I have extreme reservations about this one, both from a logistical and from a narrative point of view. But let me know what you think, I’d love to hear if other readers have different thoughts on this.

Sources

THR

Variety