Warner Bros. announced plans to move forward with The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum in 2024, making it the first movie set in Middle-earth since 2014's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Unrelated to Prime Video's pricey TV series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, this story will play out before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring, expanding on Gollum's backstory and Aragorn's quest to find him and the One Ring.
Andy Serkis will direct and reprise his role as Gollum. Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, who wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy, are penning the screenplay, along with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou (The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim).
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit director Peter Jackson, meanwhile, is producing the project, and while Serkis and Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf the Grey) are the only cast members confirmed to return (Elijah Wood has strongly hinted at his return as Frodo), a younger Aragorn is also in the process of being cast.
Today, Knight Edge Media (via SFFGazette.com) has revealed that The Hunt for Gollum is casting two key female characters. Production is currently scheduled to begin in May in New Zealand, and these mystery roles are both described as leads according to the casting call:
[FEMALE LEAD] – 30s, FEMALE, WHITE. Lead Role.
[FEMALE LEAD] – 50s, FEMALE, WHITE. Supporting Role.
The younger character could be a new take on Arwen (previously played in Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy by Liv Tyler), with the older one possibly Sméagol's grandmother. In J. R. R. Tolkien's novels, she was the matriarch of their village and ultimately banished Sméagol for the murder of his cousin.
The site also posits that the female in her 50s may be Gilraen the Fair, Aragorn's mother. She married Arathorn II, and after his death, took refuge with her young son in Rivendell under the protection of Lord Elrond. It was here that Aragorn learned Elvish and met a younger Arwen. This happening would obviously hinge on whether this movie is just as much Aragorn's story as it is Gollum's.
Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has struggled to step out of the shadow cast by fantasy series like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and hasn't been the game-changing hit that Amazon expected. This movie, however, does have the potential to reignite interest in Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is currently set to be released in theaters December 17, 2027.