The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum sees Andy Serkis returning to the role of Gollum. Serkis will also be directing the film with Peter Jackson on board as a producer for the film. They won’t be the only two from The Lord of the Rings films that will be returning to Middle Earth, however. Over the weekend, Ian McKellen shared that there will be some other familiar faces returning to the franchise.
“I hear there’s going to be another movie based in Middle-earth, and it’s going to start filming in May. It’s going to be directed by Gollum, and it’s all about Gollum,” McKellen teased on Sunday.
He continued on saying, “I’ll tell you two secrets about the casting: There’s a character in the movie called Frodo, and there’s a character in the movie called Gandalf.” As the crowd gasped, McKellen smiled and said, “Apart from that, my lips are sealed!”
While McKellen didn’t say if he and Frodo actor Elijah Wood would be reprising their roles for the upcoming film. Wood was on hand at the event and could be seen smiling back at McKellen during the moment when he revealed the news alongside fellow Lord of the Rings alums Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and John Rhys-Davies.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was originally scheduled to be released in 2026. However, it has now been pushed back to 2027 and is expected to be released in December of that year.
This would not be the first return for McKellen, Wood, Jackson, and Serkis to Middle Earth. They were all a part of The Hobbit trilogy, which came to theaters between 2012 and 2014.
Serkis updated Collider in June about the status of the next film, saying, “We’re very early on in the process. We’ve been talking about the film over the course of the last year. We’re about to start a period of prep in the next few months or so. We will be shooting in the early to mid-part of next year, I guess, and then it’ll be as long as it takes to shoot, which — it’s a sizable movie — all ready for a December 2027 release.”
