Peter Jackson’s original The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies is one of the most beloved and acclaimed adventures of this century. However, those familiar with author J.R.R. Tolkien knew that this was only a fraction of the excitement offered in his Middle-earth books, so it came as no surprise that Warner Bros. would end up developing an adaptation of The Hobbit. While Jackson was initially involved, the Hobbit adaptation was to be directed by Guillermo del Toro and was only going to be a pair of movies. Those plans ultimately expanded to an entire trilogy, as del Toro abandoned the endeavor, resulting in Jackson returning.
When the movies ultimately landed in theaters, that trilogy didn’t capture as much excitement as the original trilogy, largely due to the story being spread over three whole films. Also taking audiences by surprise was that Elijah Wood appeared in the opening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, seemingly as a reminder of how engaging the character was in the previous movies.
Speaking with MovieWeb in support of his new animated series Among Us, Wood explained how the upcoming spin-off The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will reunite not only actors from the original trilogy, but also bring together key behind-the-scenes figures. In this sense, the new spin-off will be a marked improvement over his gratuitous cameo in The Hobbit movie:
“I think this, not unlike The Hobbit, is a little bit of a creative getting the band back together, right? So many of the creative heads of department from Lord of the Rings are coming back to this at every level, and so that feels really special, like a real family reunion that I’m excited to take part in.
“And I think it’s exciting that Andy’s [Serkis] directing. And I think it’s exciting that he is directing the story of a character that he has had so much … he deserves so much credit for the creation of. So I’m very excited about that.”
New Line Cinema
The Hunt for Gollum was announced back in 2024 and was confirmed to explore the timeline between Bilbo’s birthday and Frodo leaving The Shire. In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie, it seemed like Frodo’s journey kicked off almost immediately, but in the Tolkien’s book, there was a 17-year gap. During this time, Aragorn attempted to track down Gollum before Sauron could, in order to get insight into the whereabouts of the One Ring.
Since that initial announcement, there have been questions about which members of the original cast would return and which characters would be replaced with new actors. Serkis is set to reprise his role of Gollum, while also serving as director, and joining Wood is Ian McKellen, once again playing Gandalf. One significant change, though, is that Viggo Mortensen will not be playing Aragorn, with Jamie Dornan taking over the role.