{"id":364864,"date":"2026-03-25T19:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364864\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:29:07","slug":"stephen-colbert-will-co-write-a-new-lord-of-the-rings-film-what-thumpingly-grim-news-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/364864\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert will co-write a new Lord of the Rings film. What thumpingly grim news \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of The Lord of the Rings<\/a>, JRR Tolkien\u2019s<\/a> heroic quartet of hobbits return to the Shire and find that all has changed utterly. Their bucolic home has been turned into an industrial dystopia, the mystery and beauty of Middle Earth replaced by a hellscape of brickwork factories \u2013 all at the behest of the fallen wizard Saruman, who has embarked on a new career as medieval corporate overlord, a sort of early tech bro in a funny hat.<\/p>\n

Much the same seems to be happening to Peter Jackson\u2019s<\/a> justifiably adored adaptation of Tolkien\u2019s fantasy saga. As fans mark the 25th anniversary of the first volume of Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings trilogy, the director has spoiled the fun with the depressing news that he\u2019s working on something nobody has asked for.<\/p>\n

What he\u2019s working on is a new Middle Earth movie, Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, to be written by the talkshow host (and noted Tolkien fan) Stephen Colbert<\/a>, which will function both as a sequel to The Lord of the Rings and as a revisiting of an early section of the book that Jackson skipped over in his original take on the tale.<\/p>\n

How thumpingly grim this is, especially in the context of another incoming prequel, The Hunt for Gollum, to be directed by the actor Andy Serkis and due for release in 2027. Jackson explained on social media that Shadow of the Past will pick up the story 14 years after Frodo had departed Middle Earth, along with Gandalf and Bilbo. <\/p>\n

Frodo\u2019s former companions Sam, Pippin and Merry will, we are told, \u201cset out to retrace the first steps of their adventure\u201d. Meanwhile, \u201cSam\u2019s 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

A sequel to The Lord of the Rings is the most redundant concept imaginable. We know this because Tolkien himself began just such a project, only to abandon it almost immediately. He got 13 pages into The New Shadow \u2013 set 103 years after the end of The Lord of the Rings \u2013 before concluding that it was a futile exercise.<\/p>\n

The story centred around a cult known as the Dark Tree, which worships Sauron and imagines the Great Flaming Eye one day returning to Middle Earth. But Tolkien quickly saw the pointlessness of the endeavour. He might have slogged on and produced something that was publishable \u2013 but to what end other than to diminish the impact of The Lord of the Rings? <\/p>\n

\u201cI could have written a thriller about the plot and its discovery and overthrow \u2013 but it would have been just that. Not worth doing,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

So no, thank you, Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert. We do not require a sequel to The Lord of the Rings. Nor do we need a flashback to early in The Fellowship, which is where most of the action appears to be set. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review \u2013 Enjoyably gory epic is a useful addition to Tolkien loreOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This is the section of the novel that Jackson sped through on his first telling. He clipped past Frodo and the gang\u2019s journey from Bag End to the edges of the Shire, displacing Fredegar Bolger, the \u201cfifth Beatle\u201d hobbit, and doing dirty to Farmer Maggot, who in the book bravely faces down a Black Rider only to be reduced to off-camera comic relief in the film.<\/p>\n

Jackson also erased the mysterious figure of Tom Bombadil, an ancient being who dwells in the Old Forest between the Shire and Bree and whose powers are beyond the understanding even of Gandalf.<\/p>\n

Tom Bombadil is a favourite of many Tolkien fans, but it is perhaps better that he remain on the page. He has already been butchered in Prime Video\u2019s dreadful Rings of Power, where he is played by an apologetic Rory Kinnear. <\/p>\n

He and his consort Goldberry are streaks of chaos rippling through The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien, more than anyone, was baffled by what they\u2019re doing there or how they fit into the wider story. \u201cEven in a mythical Age, there must be some enigmas, as there always are,\u201d Tolkien wrote. \u201cTom Bombadil is one (intentionally).\u201d<\/p>\n

That is why Tom is such an engaging character: he is mysterious and unknowable, just as Tolkien intended. \u201cPart of the attraction of The Lord of the Rings is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist,\u201d Tolkien wrote. \u201cTo go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0When my father met Gandalf: Tolkien\u2019s time as an external examiner at UCGOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But now Colbert and Jackson are very much going there, and there is every chance they will destroy the magic. Leave Tom Bombadil in our imaginations, Hollywood \u2013 and please stop ransacking The Lord of the Rings. The tale has been told; the road goes on and there are different stories to explore, other magical places to visit. Please don\u2019t do to The Lord of the Rings what Saruman did to the Shire, clapping it in chains and forcing it to toil for little apparent purpose other than to make money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Towards the end of The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien\u2019s heroic quartet of hobbits return to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,60417,31170,1138],"class_list":["post-364864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jrr-tolkien","tag-peter-jackson","tag-stephen-colbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}