Stephen Colbert has signed on to co-write the next The Lord of the Rings movie.
Marking Tolkien Reading Day on social media on Tuesday, director Peter Jackson offered fans an update on The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is being helmed by Andy Serkis and is due for release in 2027.
“Andy’s doing a terrific job, it’s looking amazing,” he began. “The script is coming together really well, and I think it’s going to be a really good film.”
The Oscar-winning filmmaker went on to announce that late-night talk show host Colbert is set to adapt a brand-new feature, tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, along with his son Peter McGee and screenwriter Philippa Boyens.
“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me, but the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship (of the Ring) that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day,” Colbert, who is a longtime fan of the series, declared.
“It’s basically the chapter is Three Is Company through Fog on the Barrow-Downs, 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?”
J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic novel, The Lord of the Rings, was published in 1954.
Jackson directed 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring from a screenplay he wrote with Boyens and Fran Walsh, with the fantasy epic considered one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.
His two sequels, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, were released in 2002 and 2003, while The Hobbit prequel trilogy was released between 2012 and 2014.
Elsewhere in the video, Colbert noted that he and Boyens recently took the concept to executives at New Line and Warner Bros., who “loved it”.
Jackson then admitted that he was initially uncertain how the former Colbert Report presenter could take on the project, considering his commitment to The Late Show.
But last July, executives at CBS announced that they would be ending The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and retiring The Late Show franchise altogether in May 2026.
“Now, are you sure you got the time though, because you know…,” he teased, before the 61-year-old interjected: “That, I did not think I would have the time, as much as I love it, I knew I couldn’t do that and do the show at the same time, but it turns out I’m gonna be free starting this summer. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish a television show, and I’ve got to write a movie script, but I will see you all in The Shire.”