The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Delayed a Year by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. has pushed back the premiere of the fantasy film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum by a full year. This spin-off, delving into the shadowy past of Gollum from Peter Jackson’s iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003), is now slated for 2027. Andy Serkis will once again embody the tormented creature—and this time, he’s calling the shots as director, too.
The delay was announced by Serkis himself at Fan Expo Vancouver 2025. In a chat with Klyn Felt of The Direct, who asked about the film’s progress, Serkis dropped a surprise: he’s only just begun penning the script. With filming set to kick off in 2026, the release has been rescheduled for 2027. Originally, The Hunt for Gollum was meant to grace screens in 2026. “We’d initially pegged it for December 2026,” Serkis explained. “Now we’re aiming for December 2027. I’ve just started writing the script. We’ll ramp up prep later this year—it’s a hefty process, six or seven months—then we’ll roll cameras next year. That lands us in December 2027.”
The Gollum-centric film was first unveiled in May 2024. Back then, it was revealed that Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the wordsmiths behind the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (2012, 2013, 2014) trilogies, would craft the screenplay. Peter Jackson, meanwhile, is on board as producer. Serkis will slip back into his motion-capture suit for the role, bringing Gollum to life once more. Warner Bros. Discovery has grand plans for multiple films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, though Gollum’s story might wrap up with this lone chapter.
Elsewhere in Middle-earth, Amazon Prime Video has greenlit a third season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022–present), with a total of five seasons in the pipeline. This spin-off chronicles the forging of the Rings of Power and Sauron’s rise. Rounding out 2024, the Tolkien universe expanded with the full-length anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
