Well, here’s some good news for fans of the massive Lord of the Rings franchise. Warner Bros. announces plans to release the first of its new live-action The Lord of the Rings films in 2026, with a focus on Andy Serkis’ character Gollum, revealed during an earnings call by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
Produced by Peter Jackson, the original director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, along with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the project will delve into unexplored storylines and involve script development by Walsh, Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou.
Warner Bros. unveiled the film’s working title, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, to be directed by and starring Serkis, with executive production by Ken Kamins and Jonathan Cavendish of The Imaginarium. The initiative stems from a deal brokered in February 2023 by then-Warner Bros. studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, aimed at creating multiple films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved books through New Line Cinema, with Freemode securing adaptive rights under Middle-earth Enterprises.
Get this if this isn’t enough: a separate animated Middle-earth movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is slated for release on Dec. 13, directed by Kenji Kamiyama and set 200 years before The Hobbit. De Luca and Abdy lauded Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens’ dedication to Tolkien’s legacy, expressing gratitude for their involvement in the new projects. Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens echoed the sentiment, expressing enthusiasm for collaborating again with Serkis and the Warner Bros. team.
Reflecting on the venture, Serkis expressed excitement about revisiting Middle-earth alongside Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens, as well as the Warner Bros. team and their filmmaking family in New Zealand. The original The Lord of the Rings trilogy, directed by Jackson, amassed nearly $3 billion worldwide and garnered numerous accolades, including 17 Academy Awards, with Jackson’s subsequent The Hobbit trilogy achieving similar success.
