Andy Serkis Directing ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’ for Expected 2026 Release

Warner Bros. Discovery added two million direct-to-consumer subscribers in Q1 and it didn’t even have Anduril, Flame of the West to rally its following. Yet.

As part of the quarterly earnings call this morning, WBD CEO David Zaslav let us gaze into his palantir and see a bit of the future his development execs have planned for future films set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. First up, and planned for a 2026 release, “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” directed by Andy Serkis, who shot to fame playing the title character himself. Warner Bros. does caveat that “The Hunt for Gollum” is a working title.

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Serkis has been one of the leading pioneers of motion-capture technology with his performance of the split-personality villain, one of the most popular characters of the entire saga powered by the actor’s unique, squeaky-gravelly voice and Tolkien’s exceptional writing, adapted with some judicious tweaks by director Peter Jackson and screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

And guess what? Jackson is back as a producer on “The Hunt for Gollum,” alongside his producing partners Walsh and Boyens. This is the first of two films, in which they will serve in that capacity. Walsh and Boyens will be writing the script.

Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens said in a 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!”

Serkis added, “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,” said Serkis. “With Mike and Pam, and the Warner Bros team on the quest as well, alongside WETA and our film making family in New Zealand, it’s just all too delicious…”

Serkis has developed his bona fides as a director of blockbuster films with his helming of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” Making the leap to a potential nine-figure budgeted “Lord of the Rings” film is a natural step. He had also served as second unit director on Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy.

Earlier in the WBD quarterly earnings call, CEO David Zaslav had said the first of the new “Lord of the Rings” films would be released in 2026, though offered no other details at the time.

“This morning, I’m excited to announce that the team is now in the early stages of script development for the first of the new ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, which we anticipate releasing in 2026,” Zaslav said, “and we’ll explore storylines yet to be told.”

“Peter Jackson and his longtime writing partners, Fran Walsh [and] Philippa Boyens are producing and will be involved every step of the way,” he said.

“’Lord of the Rings’ is one of the most successful and revered franchises in history and presents a significant opportunity for theatrical business,” Zaslav added.

Fans still have absolutely no idea what material may be adapted for future films beyond “The Hunt for Gollum.” First off: Will they be one-offs or connected? But there’s certainly plenty of additional material in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium to mine: There’s “The Silmarillion,” with its tales of the earliest days of Middle-earth, centered largely around the immortal elves and their centuries-long war against the evil spirit Morgoth (who was sort of the boss to Sauron, the baddie from the 2001-2003 films we all know and love). And there’s the appendices to “The Lord of the Rings” itself, which cover a good chunk of 3,000 years of history. Not to mention that Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” covers a different period of Middle-earth history altogether, some of it having to be invented from scratch by the writers.

Amazon, under Tolkien superfan Jeff Bezos, bought the rights to the entire Tolkien catalogue. However, Warner Bros. has the exclusive theatrical development and release rights dating back to complicated maneuvering involving Saul Zaentz decades ago.

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