Summary
WhileLord Of the Rings: The Hunt For Gollumwon’t be split up to force fans to the theaters twice, a recent statement from the most integral creative working on the project suggests that they won’t be getting to the end of the tale anytime soon regardless.
TheLord of the Ringsfranchise has taken a long break from theatrical releases following the conclusion of theHobbitfilm trilogy, Peter Jackson’s less well-regarded follow-up to his prior work creating the highly acclaimedLord of the Ringsfilm trilogy. Warner Bros. Discovery’s recent mandate to properly maximize its collection of popular IPs led to the announcement of a plethora of new projects from the franchise, includingLord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
WhileLord of the Rings: The Hunt For Gollumsidestepped that release plan controversy, a recent admission from the main man on the project confirms that fans won’t be getting the film in theaters next year like originally intended.The Direct’s Klein Felt was on hand at Andy Serkis' Fan Expo Vancouver 2025 panel at the start of the week, and inquired about the film’s current stage of development, and the response is less than affirming.“Yeah, it is not 2026. It was originally going to be December 2026. It is going to be December 2027,“Serkis revealed.“We are right at the beginning of the writing process. We will be prepping later this year. Prep takes a good chunk of time, six or seven months, and then we will be shooting next year. So, it backs into that December 2027 release date.”
While there’s been no official change in the published 2026 release window by Warner Bros. Discovery, Serkis’ word on the timeline speaking as the project’s lead actor, director and an executive producer is likely as good as gold on the issue. Some of the reason for this large time requirement might stem from the fact that there’s a lot of legwork involved in making the bits of story being referenced here a full-on theatrical project. There are manymore fitting options for stories in theLord of the Ringsfranchise than whatThe Hunt For Gollumis working with, so the writers have much more work to do than was needed on either of Jackson’s two trilogies. There’s no higher bar in fantasy than adapting Tolkien except perhaps filling in blanks with a level of competence that does Tolkien’s work justice. It’s a tall order for sure, and pretty much impossible if the writers are rushed. From that perspective, the delays in the film’s release for writing and prep can only do the project good.
While it’s not what many fans had in mind as the franchise’s return to live-action films,the past proves there’s potential inThe Hunt for Gollum.With the writers seemingly taking time to craft the story carefully and Serkis on board to star, helm the project and give realistic time frames for the project,The Hunt for Gollumcould prove to be an unexpected win for the studio, the franchise and the fans. There’s a long time yet before fans find out whether or not the wait was worth it, but that also means that there’s more time to perfect the script, get the right actors to join the cast, and go through the high level post production work required for a fantasy epic worthy of Tolkien.
Lord Of the Rings: The Hunt For Gollumis currently set for theatrical release in December, 2027.
