Andy Serkis isn’t done with Middle-earth just yet.
The upcoming prequel film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum sees Serkis pulling double duty — more so than he already does in the dual part of Gollum/Sméagol. On top of reprising that iconic role, he’s also stepping into the director’s chair, making him the only person aside from Peter Jackson to helm a live-action Lord of the Rings movie.
Before The Hunt for Gollum‘s production gets underway in New Zealand, Serkis spoke with Mashable Entertainment Reporter Belen Edwards about what viewers could expect from the film.
“The joy of [The Hunt for Gollum] is that it’s entirely its own story, but it fits perfectly into the lore, the tone, the feel of the Middle-earth films that were created by Peter Jackson 25 years ago,” Serkis said.
According to Serkis, the film “sits between The Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Rings.” It will follow Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Aragorn’s (Jamie Dornan, replacing Viggo Mortensen) search for Gollum in the lead-up to the War of the Ring. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about this hunt in The Fellowship of the Ring and the trilogy’s Appendices, and Jackson’s films briefly mention it.
The Hunt for Gollum is the latest step in Warner Bros. Pictures’ expansion of their Middle-earth titles. 2025 saw the release of anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Then, on March 25, Warner Bros. announced The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past (working title), a Lord of the Rings sequel written by Philippa Boyens, Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert, and his son Peter McGee.
The deluge of Lord of the Rings titles might raise alarm bells about the dilution of a beloved franchise. For Serkis’ part, this isn’t the case with The Hunt for Gollum.
“The story, and therefore how we see the story, is different and unique to this particular tale,” Serkis said. “It’s not just a nostalgia film. We’re seeing plenty of those, and laying heavily into the nostalgia and the things that we loved about those movies of 25 and 30 years ago. [The Hunt for Gollum] adheres to that world, but it certainly has a freshness and a newness in terms of the actual story.”
The newness also extends to the cast. The Hunt for Gollum features the return of several familiar faces: Serkis, McKellen, Elijah Wood, and Lee Pace reprise their roles from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. However, the film also invites several newcomers into Middle-earth. Kate Winslet and Leo Woodall play Marigol and Halvard, two characters who aren’t named in Tolkien’s original novels or films, while Jamie Dornan takes over the role of Aragorn from Viggo Mortensen.
“We’re calling him Strider in our movie. He is at a different point in his journey, so he is slightly different to the Aragorn that we see later on,” Serkis explained. “It’s a version of himself that’s been out in the wilderness as a Dúnedain Ranger. I’ll leave it at that for the moment, but Jamie is perfect for this part of the journey of the character.”
For more from Serkis, including his favorite Lord of the Rings meme and his reflections on Andor, check out the full Say More interview above.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum hits theaters in 2027.
Topics
Film
Lord of the Rings
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