A new live-action Lord of the Rings film is coming in 2026. Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will "explore storylines yet to be told," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Thursday during an earnings call, per Variety. Warner Bros. announced it had inked a deal to make "multiple" new films based on JRR Tolkien's beloved series back in February 2023. An animated film, Kenji Kamiyama's The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, set 200 years before the events of The Hobbit, will be released Dec. 13, per Variety. It will be followed by The Hunt for Gollum, which loyal fans will be happy to know has familiar names attached.
Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the earlier films, will direct and star. Peter Jackson, who directed and produced the previous Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, will produce along with his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, per Variety. "It is an honor 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!" the trio said in a statement.
Serkis referred to "our filmmaking family in New Zealand," suggesting the new movie will be filmed there, as were its predecessors. Walsh, Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou are writing the script, which Zaslav said was in the early stages of development, per the Guardian. He noted "Lord of the Rings is one of the most successful and revered franchises in history and presents a significant opportunity for theatrical business." (More movies stories.)
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