Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Will Be 'Surprising' but 'Very Much Part of the Lore and Feel' of Peter Jackson's Trilogy, Andy Serkis Says

Andy Serkis has briefly commented on Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, saying it will be “surprising” for fans, but with a “sensibility” that will feel close to Peter Jackson’s beloved trilogy.

Serkis will direct and star in The Hunt for Gollum, due out December 17, 2027, reprising the role that made him a household name. Serkis played Gollum across Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy as well as The Hobbit film trilogy, and is set to return to the character over a decade after The Battle of the Five Armies came out. This time, we’ll get to see what Gollum was up to in the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Speaking to Collider while promoting his new film, Animal Farm, Serkis touched on the tone fans can expect from The Hunt for Gollum, and issued an update on when filming will begin.

“We're very early on in the process,” he said. “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.

“I'm incredibly excited to go back and work with my friends and family in New Zealand and actually do something which is, I think, going to be surprising, and yet very much part of the lore and the feel of the trilogy. The sensibility of it will feel, I think, close to that, and yet we're investigating in greater depth the character formerly known as Smeagol, but mostly known as Gollum.”

Serkis' comments suggest The Hunt for Gollum will be developed with The Lord of the Rings trilogy firmly in mind, and perhaps confirms it will be mindful of the lore established by those films. What we do know is that it's set to see a number of famous faces return, including Gandalf. The 86-year-old Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, has said he'd be open to returning as the wizard so long as age didn't catch up to him. Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen is also open to returning.

Warner Bros. has said The Hunt for Gollum is in fact the first of two new Lord of the Rings feature films from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, as the company aims to make more of the franchise.

Amazon has of course kept the Lord of the Rings fire burning with its Prime Video series The Rings of Power. Season 3 is in the works. Elsewhere in Tolkien's world sits The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, the animated film that came out in December.

Image credit: Warner Bros.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.