Stephen Colbert officially wrapped up The Late Show on May 21, 2026, delivering an emotional late-night send-off before jumping headfirst into the self-professed biggest Lord of the Rings fan biggest project to date: a film that will bring Tom Bombadi to the big screen.
First teased by Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson on Tolkien Reading Day back in March, The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is being co-written by Colbert, his son Peter McGee, and original trilogy writer Philippa Boyens.
This new project is focused on chapters three through eight of The Fellowship of the Ring book, material that Jackson opted to omit from the original trilogy. The story is a mini-arc that shows events that occurred between when Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin first left the Shire and when they first encountered Strider/Aragon.
Crucially, that includes the fan-favorite Tom Bombadil arc. Older and far more ancient than Gandalf's order of wizards, Bombadil is completely immune to the Ring's influence because he has no desire for power.
In the books, The Council of Elrond briefly considers asking Tom to be the ring-bearer but Gandalf is against it, as he says that Tom would view the ring as inconsequential and likely misplace it.
The character doesn't appear in any of the main or prequel Lord of the Rings films but makes his live-action debut in Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024, played by Rory Kinnear.
After a series of wins at the recent Emmy Awards, Colbert confirmed he's currently hard at work writing the script.
"That’s what I’m doing. That takes a lot of time, man. You ever written a Lord of the Rings movie? It’s a full-time job," said Colbert.
"Literally, I woke up in New Zealand yesterday. I flew here for the Emmys. Yesterday, [when I was in] New Zealand [it was] was tomorrow there. I went from yesterday to tomorrow, so I don’t know how many days today has been. What did I say in my speech? I was hallucinating up there.”
Fan reaction has been mostly skeptical, as many Tolkien fans are unsure whether 6 chapters are enough to make a full movie.
Colbert's film is expected to be released after Andy Serkis's The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is thought to have a late-2027 release window.