The Hunt for Gollum was confirmed to be in the works in May 2024, with Jackson producing and Serkis directing the tale about Aragorn and Gandalf's quest to apprehend the titular creature.

During a recent appearance at a Fan Expo Vancouver on February 23, per The Direct, Serkis reveals that The Hunt for Gollum has been delayed by one year. The film, which was originally slated to release in December 2026, will now bow in theaters in December 2027, with filming set to get underway next year. Check out Serkis' comment below:

”Yeah, it is not 2026. It was originally going to be December 2026. It is going to be December 2027. 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."

What The Hunt For Gollum's Delay Means For Lord Of The Rings

Getting The Script Right Will Be Crucial

To hit a December 2026 release date, The Hunt for Gollum would have had to start filming this year, and that would mean having a script ready to go. It's clear that it's still very early days for the writing of the movie, and screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou evidently want to make sure they get it right after the poor response to The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. In addition to earning mixed reviews, the anime film was a major box office bomb, grossing just $20 million.

Getting the script right will also be what encourages original The Playlist, "whether Viggo does it or not will entirely depend on how good the script is."

If Mortensen returns as Aragorn in The Hunt for Gollum, he will be older than McKellen was during the filming of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Our Take On The Hunt For Gollum's Delay

This Middle-Earth Return Is A Risk

The Hunt for Gollum faces an uphill battle. The film tells a story set between two beloved and acclaimed entries in the original saga, but it's coming 26 years later. Recapturing the magic of Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy will be no easy task, and it will require digitally de-aging any original actors that return, which has not always been successful in movies. That's not to mention the fact that this particular story feels somewhat inconsequential in the grand scheme of the franchise.

Ultimately, The Hunt for Gollum feels like a nostalgia play that carries more risk than benefit. Getting it wrong could hurt the legacy of the original trilogy and it would mark another loss for the franchise after The War of the Rohirrim. Getting it right, on the other hand, will mean filling in a story gap that Tolkien himself didn't write about with much detail. Still, there is something to be said for returning to a familiar version of Middle-earth, and, in Serkis' hands, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum could be a worthwhile venture.

Source: The Direct