Think The Hobbit movies were too drawn out? That’s not going to happen with Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, despite previous reports to the contrary.
Earlier this year, Ian McKellen suggested in an interview that Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will be split into two movies.
This has now been denied by screenwriter Philippa Boyens, who worked on the original trilogy and is currently working on The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
“I can tell you definitively it isn’t two films,” she told Empire. “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.”
McKellen appeared to imply The Hunt for Gollum would be split across two films during a TV interview with UK TV show This Morning in September, not too long after he fell off the stage during a theatre performance.
There’s a good reason McKellen got the facts a little bit wrong, though.
Two Lord of the Rings films are planned. Both are likely to feature Gandalf. And the time of the interview, McKellen said he was yet to even read any of the films’ scripts.
“We’re playing around with a number of ideas, but most of those ideas do include Gandalf,” says Boyens. “Gandalf would potentially return for two live-action films.”
In the This Morning interview, though, McKellen did not confirm he would actually return to the series, but did sound keen to return to New Zealand, should the films be shot there.
Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is to be directed by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis.
Since the Lord of the Rings original trilogy, Serkis has directed a handful of films, including 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Netflix original Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.
The Hunt for Gollum is set in the trilogy’s timeframe, according to Boyens. Its events fall between the birthday party of Bilbo Baggins, and the fellowship’s voyage into the mines of Moria.
Oddly enough, a fan film of the same name has already been made. It was released in 2009, and is still available to watch on YouTube. It’s 39 minutes long and, just like the upcoming major release, tackles a strand of the Lord of the Rings story that only happens in the background in the films.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is expected to land some time in 2026. But Boyens’s current project, the War of the Rohirrim, is much closer. It’s out in cinemas from December 13.
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