After Peter Jackson’s massively successful original Lord of the Ringstrilogy and then his significantly less successful trilogy of movies based on The Hobbit, it wasn’t clear where the larger Lord of the Rings franchise was going to go—but now, several Lord of the Rings projects are in the works, including two movies that just got major updates. In 2022, Prime Video’s streaming series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power began, and just a few years later, in 2024, the anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim debuted. Now, not only is The Rings of Power season 3 just around the corner, with an expected release date of Nov. 11, but also, two movies are currently in production: the (mostly) prequel story The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and the sort of prequel sort of sequel movie The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past, led by Stephen Colbert.
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Jackson has now provided a significant update on both. Per ScreenRant, Jackson said, “We have The Shadow of the Past, which is in the scriptwriting stage. The Hunt for Gollumis almost finished filming. I think there are about two weeks of shooting left.” This is a significant update on both fronts, as it confirms that the script for Shadows of the Past is well underway and that The Hunt for Gollum is almost ready for the next phase of development, the latter of which is particularly notable. This does make sense in terms of timeline, though, as The Hunt for Gollum is currently slated for Dec. 17, 2027, whereas Shadows of the Past does not yet have an official release date. Thus far, though, we do know quite a bit about both stories.
Shadows of the Past and The Hunt For Gollum’s Stories Are Already Established
Both Shadows of the Past and The Hunt for Gollum already have their stories clearly outlined, and despite some backlash to each of them, they are both rooted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, for the most part. The Hunt for Gollum, for example, is set during the 17-year period that takes place at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf goes on a search for Gollum to keep the enemy from finding him and learning where the One Ring is (although that’s ultimately exactly what happened). What will make this interesting is the fact that in The Fellowship of the Ring movie, it really doesn’t feel like 17 years go by; instead, it feels more like months. It will be interesting to see how that impacts the original Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, but it is actually based on the books.
Shadows of the Past is slightly more complicated, as it will be set in two intertwining narratives, one of which is not from the books. Specifically, the movie will revisit Sam, Merry, and Pippin years after the conclusion of the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which will be new. However, the other half of the narrative will revisit chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring book that weren’t used in Jackson’s original movies. The fact that Shadows of the Past will be adding to this classic story has already ruffled feathers and will no doubt continue to do so as more information comes out, but there should at least be some comfort in the fact that these movies are, at least in large part, still based on Tolkien’s books.
Are you looking forward to Shadows of the Past and The Hunt for Gollum, or would you rather see The Lord of the Rings left untouched? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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