Last February, David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, announced one of the biggest bombshells of the year for the studio: the return to theaters of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. The saga will be revived on the big screen once again by Peter Jacksonwho will closely supervise every step of the relaunch of the franchise based on the work of JRR Tolkien.
A few months later, Zaslav gives new details about the return to Middle-earth during an investor meeting (via Variety). The executive has announced that the first of the new batch of films (the total number of which has not yet been established) will hit movie theaters around the world in 2026 and it already has an official title: ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’.
Jackson, who directed the original trilogy, as well as the prequel trilogy to ‘The Hobbit’, returns with his faithful collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to produce the film. According to Zaslav, the three will oversee “every step of the project”.
However, Jackson will not direct the film this timeand for the first time in the saga, handing over the baton to an old acquaintance, Andy Serkis, who in addition to returning as Gollum, will be in charge of the production. Serkis, the king of performance capture, has experience in this field, having directed ‘Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle’ or ‘Venom: There Will Be Carnage’.
For now, specific details about the script are unknown, which is in the initial writing phase, but as its title indicates, it will focus on Gollum. Zaslav has also confirmed that the film will “explore stories yet to be told” of Middle Earth. The film will feature Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, the new directors of Warner Bros., as producers, and will be developed, along with its possible successors, by New Line Cinema.
And the series?
In 2022 Prime Video premiered ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ in style, its own version of Tolkien’s fantastic saga in serial format and with new stories. Amazon spent a fortune on the project, making it the most expensive series in history, but the result was not what was desired and, Despite the great technical and budgetary deployment, the proposal strongly divided the audience.
Two years later, Prime Video is also preparing to return to Middle-earth with the second season of the series, which will arrive in 2024, at a date yet to be announced. With Warner’s counterattack and the ace up his sleeve that is Peter Jackson, ‘The Rings of Power’ has a new obstacle to overcome to win the favor of the audience after its lukewarm start.
