It’s time to go there and back again, and again, and again, as it has now been revealed that another live-action Lord of the Rings movie is now in the works alongside The Hunt for Gollum. Lord of the Rings screenwriter Philippa Boyens has now confirmed the exciting news to Empire, revealing that a “misunderstanding” led many (including Gandalf actor Sir Ian McKellen) to believe that The Hunt for Gollum will be split into two movies. Instead, another, separate movie is now in development, with Hunt for Gollum telling “an intense story.”
“I can tell you definitively it isn’t two films! That was a genuine misunderstanding that happened because we’ve begun to work, conceptually, on two different live-action films. The first being The Hunt For Gollum, the second one still to be confirmed.
It’s quite an intense story, which falls after the birthday party of Bilbo and before the Mines Of Moria. It’s a specific chunk of incredible untold story, told through the perspective of this incredible creature.”
Alongside this, Boyens also reveals that Gandalf will play a major part in the expanding fantasy franchise going forward. Which is likely how the acclaimed actor got confused…
“We’re playing around with a number of ideas, but most of those ideas do include Gandalf. So Gandalf would potentially return for two live-action films.”
The Lord of the Rings Franchise Is Growing Fast
Not only that! Boyens also goes on to state that, should the upcoming anime Lord of the Rings venture, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, do well in theaters, they have another idea that would be an “absolute banger” as another anime outing.
“We have an absolute banger of a second film that would just be incredible as an anime. But let’s see if there’s an appetite for it.”
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Warner Bros. is looking to build on the success of the critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings movies (and the less impactful Hobbit movies, of course), with the studio reuniting with Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis on The Hunt for Gollum. The movie was announced back in May, with Jackson on board to produce the project, while Serkis sits in the director’s chair and reprises the title role. Serkis said in a statement at the time:
“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,” Serkis said in a statement at the time. “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…”
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video continues to explore Middle-earth’s Second Age in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, with a third season now in development. The anime project, The War of the Rohirrim, is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on December 13, 2024, and is set 183 years before the events of the original trilogy, telling the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. So, we hope you like Lord of the Rings stuff, because there’s going to be a lot of it.