Lord of the Rings stars Ian McKellen, Elijah Wooden return for Hunt for Gollum

Ian McKellen and Elijah Wooden will reprise their roles because the wizard Gandalf and Hobbit Frodo Baggins, respectively, in Andy Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Warner Bros. confirmed the solid of the brand new Lord of the Rings film at CinemaCon 2026 on Tuesday and revealed a poster, with Gollum prominently featured.

The movie, which is scheduled to be launched in theaters in 2027, may even deliver again Lee Tempo because the Elvenking Thranduil. Kate Winslet was beforehand revealed to star within the movie, and he or she’ll be enjoying the character Marigol.

In fact, Serkis may even return, enjoying each Gollum and Smeagol within the undertaking. The Hunt for Gollum would be the first live-action movie based mostly on the books of J.R.R. Tolkien since The Hobbit: The Battle of 5 Armies was launched in 2014.

Two actors new to the Lord of the Rings movie franchise have been additionally confirmed: Jamie Dornan will play a younger Strider (aka Aragorn) and Leo Woodall will painting Halvard. Woodall was beforehand rumored to be within the working for Aragorn, taking on from Viggo Mortensen.

Serkis set a brand new commonplace for movement seize performances along with his portrayal of the pitiful, ring-obsessed Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The actor went on to make use of those self same abilities in Jackson’s model of King Kong in 2005, and the Planet of the Apes reboot that kicked off in 2011. He’s additionally used his in depth data of CGI to direct Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

The Hunt for Gollum will seemingly cowl the time between Bilbo’s 111th birthday and Gandalf’s return to the Shire, lined within the first chapters of Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring however lower from the 2001 movie. Gandalf enlisted Aragorn to trace down Gollum so he may be taught the place Bilbo’s ring got here from and whether or not it was truly the One Ring that Sauron was looking for. It’s been greater than twenty years since Viggo Mortensen performed Isildur’s inheritor, so it’s unclear if the actor is returning to tug a screaming CGI creature throughout Center-earth/New Zealand.

Serkis and screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou must flip a number of pages of textual content about what appears like a fairly depressing expertise for all of the characters concerned into an entertaining film. They are going to seemingly draw from The Hunt for the Ring, a chapter in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien’s posthumous work edited by his son Christopher, which follows the journey of the Black Riders after Gollum’s launch from Mordor.

Warner Bros. Discovery can also be engaged on one other live-action LOTR undertaking, which is tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Previous. Filming on season 3 of the Prime Video prequel sequence The Rings of Energy has been accomplished, however a launch date hasn’t been introduced but.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is slated for a theatrical launch on Dec. 17, 2027. It’s at the moment scheduled to hit theaters on the identical day as Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Secret Wars. Although perhaps Warner Bros. and Marvel are hoping they’ll capitalize on some Barbenheimer-style double options, just like the “Dunesday” matchup later this 12 months between Dune: Half 3 and Avengers: Doomsday.