No, it’s not an early April Fool’s Day gag: We’re getting a new Lord of the Rings movie written by a very famous uber-fan!
March 24 was Tolkien Reading Day, so of course Peter Jackson put out a video with Warner Bros, which included an update for the upcoming The Hunt for Gollum film. He said Andy Serkis is “doing a terrific job. It’s looking amazing. The script is coming together really well and I think it’s going to be a really good film.”
Jackson then dropped the bomb that a brand-new Lord of the Rings film is on the way, co-written by Jackson’s long-time collaborator Philippa Boyens. He then introduced the other writer: None other than late-night talk show host and lifelong LOTR uber-fan Stephen Colbert!
In honor of Tolkien Reading Day and the destruction of the One Ring, we bring you a special announcement. pic.twitter.com/ufh9RLBIxO
— Warner Bros. (@warnerbros) March 25, 2026
Colbert gushed about the idea, which has the title The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past. The logline confirms this will be a direct sequel to the original trilogy that expands on what happened to three of the beloved Hobbits.
“Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”
It’s presumed that this would have the returns of Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd as Sam, Merry and Pippin. Colbert stated that he crafted the story's framework with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and has been working on it with Jackson for over two years.
Why Colbert writing Lord of the Rings could work
It’s no secret to Stephen Colbert's fans that he is a massive LOTR buff. He’s constantly talked about the books and the movies, and even had a small role in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He famously dressed up as LOTR characters for a series of Entertainment Weekly covers and directed Jackson, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, and Elijah Wood in the 2019 short film Darrylgorn.
Speaking on the video, Colbert emphasized he wants to do justice to the source material and is drawing heavily on material from the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, that Jackson never got to use in his film trilogy.
“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me," Colbert said. "But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in [‘The Fellowship of the Ring’] that ya’ll never developed into the first movie back in the day. It’s basically the chapter ‘Three Is Company’ [Chapter III] through ‘Fog on the Barrow-Downs’ [Chapter VIII]. And I thought, ‘Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?'”
The chapters Colbert mentioned detail the hobbits' journey out of the Shire, and include some extra adventures like their run-in with Barrow-wights and Tom Bombadil. It’s sounds like this new film will adapt those events in some way, as well as add in other threads from the appendices.
Some Lord of the Rings fans may be concerned that this project is just a “cash grab,” and wonder whether it’s needed. However, the fact that it comes from someone who truly loves the franchise is a good sign. Colbert knows full well how the fans might react to this movie, and wants to silence the doubters. He seems passionate about it, and that’s a good sign that this will be true to the lore.
The idea of Stephen Colbert writing a Lord of the Rings movie is one of the most exciting pieces of news for the franchise in a long while. Hopefully it builds a new chapter in the lore of Middle-earth.