Outlander's Sam Heughan basically confirms he's in the new Lord of the Rings movie The Hunt for Gollum

After eight seasons, Starz's hit time-traveling romance series Outlander came to an end in May 2026, giving fans a cathartic farewell. Stars Caitríona Balfe (Claire Fraser) and Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) became iconic over the course of the show's eight seasons for their performance as the couple at the heart of the story, but whenever we see Heughan and Balfe on screen again, it will be in some other story. Now, we might have an idea of where Heughan at least will be popping up: Middle-earth.

Rumors have swirled for a while now that Heughan was involved in the upcoming Lord of the Rings film The Hunt for Gollum, which is currently filming in New Zealand. And at a recent appearance at the Wigtown Book Festival on October 4, Heughan came about as close to confirming it as he could without saying the words outright.

Sam Heughan hints at filming The Hunt for Gollum

Parts of Heughan's appearance at Wigtown Books were recorded by Outlander fan account @mariajtwo, who thankfully caught a juicy moment where Heughan got into discussing his history with The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's series came up when the actor was asked about storytelling influences, and whether there was any relation in his name to Samwise from The Lord of the Rings.

Heughan playfully denied any connection to the stout-hearted Hobbit, while poking fun at his brother, who is named after the Elf, Cirdan the Shipwright. "Yes, my brother is in fact here. If you see someone who looks like a goblin or an orc, that's him," Heughan joked. "No, no, he's named after an Elf, sorry. He's named after an Elf, and I am not named after a Hobbit."

This is fun, because Heughan has in fact confirmed many times in interviews that he is, in fact, named after Samwise Gamgee. His parents were part of a hippie community in London called Gandalf's Garden, which was deeply into interpreting the life lessons from The Lord of the Rings, among other things. It's a fascinating, life-long connection between the Outlander star and J.R.R. Tolkien's works.

Things got very interesting when the moderator made light of the Lord of the Rings franchise being "exhausted" at this point. Heughan quickly came to its defense. "No, it's not exhausted," he said. "I'm not giving anything away...but I may have been in New Zealand recently."

Who would Sam Heughan play in The Hunt for Gollum?

While Heughan may have just been visiting the set, the amount of dodging around talking about The Hunt for Gollum that he does makes it clear he's keeping something close to the chest. And this isn't the first clue we've gotten either; another eagle-eyed Outlander fan account, @samjamie_stillhere, noticed that a rare edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien went up for auction to benefit the ALS Network, which was signed by "people who have taken his world to the screen, and people who are taking it there next." The list of signatures includes a number of stars and producers from The Hunt for Gollum, all of whom have their roles for the film listed...as well as Sam Heughan.

If Heughan is indeed part of the cast for The Hunt for Gollum, as the evidence suggests, who would he play? Despite his namesake, it's hard to imagine director Andy Serkis wanting to use someone of Heughan's stature and physicality to play a Hobbit. My guess would be another ranger, since we already know we'll see multiple in the movie, with the casting of both Jamie Dornan as Aragorn and Leo Woodall as the original character Halvard. I wouldn't rule out an Elf, either.

We will absolutely be keeping an eye out for any more clues about Heughan's role in the film, but for now, it's good just to have a more solid hint that he's actually in it at all. And from his passion for the source material and his own personal connection, it's pretty obvious that this is a great fit.

"I think those stories are really interesting that Tolkien wrote...he created his own languages. But it was all based on, you know, on an Anglo-Saxon, or on British culture and history. And I think that's just so fascinating," Heughan said, recalling how he grew up listening to a radio production of the books read by Ian Holm, who played Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's original trilogy of films, and how it was "terrifying" for him as a child.

"And I think, watching those movies as I grew up, it really influenced me...yeah, I'm a big fan," he said.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is currently filming in New Zealand. It's scheduled to premiere in theaters on December 17, 2027. Hopefully, we find out more about the nature of Heughan's involvement in the movie before then.

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