Fans of The Lord of the Rings franchise are starting to get baffled by the onslaught of new movies coming their way. After Warner Bros. announced The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, fans are getting another one with Andy Serkis at the helm.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is confirmed to be a working title, although it seems the project is truly coming to life after WBD CEO David Zaslav revealed its tentative 2026 release.
Andy Serkis To Direct The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
In a statement released by renowned director Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, they announced the return to Middle-earth with the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum with Andy Serkis (via IndieWire):
“It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, ndy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker — Gollum! As life-long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy, and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”
WBD CEO David Zaslav said as part of the quarterly earnings that “the team is now in the early stages of script development” and they promised to “explore storylines yet to be told.” He also announced that they are eyeing a 2026 release.
“Lord of the Rings is one of the most successful and revered franchises in history and presents a significant opportunity for theatrical business.”
Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated film that has been long-gestating since June 2021. While the movie is helmed by Kenji Kamiyama, resident Lord of the Rings writer Philippa Boyens serves as an executive producer. The screenplay will feature a story set around 250 years before the events in the original movie.
There has been quite a lot of revitalization of the franchise as Amazon Prime also released The Rings of Power in 2022. At this point, fans seemed pretty overwhelmed with the amount of new Lord of the Rings-related media.
Fans Are Tired Of More Lord Of The Rings Content
Fans took their frustration out of Middle-earth and onto Twitter after the announcement of yet another Lord of the Rings movie. Many questioned its relevance while others could not even imagine what the plot of Andy Serkis’ film would tackle about.
With the numerous iterations of the popular works of J.R.R. Tolkien, this seems quite unnecessary for a lot of fans now. Check out their tweets below:
What the hell is this movie even going to be about 💀
— yammi (@sighyam) May 9, 2024
Dude why?
— Sammy3peat (@sammy3peat) May 9, 2024
God, no one wants these Gollum movies
— Wizzer News (@MMAcallout) May 9, 2024
Is there not anything new to write in Hollywood?
Always renewing and making spin offs from old blockbusters— BIGSAM (@Themansamson01) May 9, 2024
Sounds fucking terrible nobody is watching 3 hours of that
— Tom (@TM41142) May 9, 2024
My brain still doesn't process that this is serious.
— Mona (@RealMona_) May 9, 2024
The Lord of the Rings trilogy, together with The Hobbit films, are considered global fan favorites, but ever since the development of Rings of Power, which received lukewarm reactions from critics and fans, getting two new movies does not sound like a good idea at all.
In any case, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim arrives on December 13, 2024. The Hunt for Gollum gets an initial 2026 release.
