Andy Serkis is directing a ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie about his famous character

Andy Serkis will direct the next chapter in the Lord of the Rings franchise

By Joe Allen Published September 11, 2024

Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Two Towers — Warner Bros.

Although he’s had a career filled with great roles, Andy Serkis may always be defined by his performance as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. As it turns out, though, Serkis may be okay with that. The actor and director is set to return to the world of Lord of the Rings with a new prequel film called Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The movie is set to hit theaters in 2026, and thus far, we don’t know a ton about the project.

Ian McKellen’s Gandalf is one of the franchise’s original stars who is set to return for the project, and in a recent interview with This Morning in the U.K., he offered some details about the upcoming project.

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“I’m told it’s two films. I probably shouldn’t be saying that, but I haven’t read the script, and I don’t know when it is, and I don’t even know where it’ll be filmed,” he said. McKellen added that he would be willing to return to New Zealand for filming if that’s what the plan turned out to be.

“Well, all I know is that they called me up and said these films were going to happen, that [they’re] mainly going to be about Gollum, Andy Serkis who played Gollum is going to direct, and there will be a script arriving sometime in the new year,” he said. “And then I’ll judge whether I want to go back.”

For now, then, the prospective return of some of the core cast is still up in the air. All we know for sure is that Serkis’s Gollum will be back, and he may look even better than he did during his brief appearance in The Hobbit.

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Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…

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