{"id":366965,"date":"2026-04-06T23:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/366965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:36:08","slug":"stephen-colbert-explains-lord-of-the-rings-movie-career-pivot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/366965\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert Explains ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie Career Pivot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tStephen Colbert<\/a> recently revealed his unexpected next career move after \u201cThe Late Show\u201d will come to an end on CBS in May: He will be co-writing a new \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d movie<\/a> titled \u201cShadow of the Past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe may have hinted at the announcement on Monday\u2019s episode of the \u201cSmartless\u201d podcast (which was taped on March 18, a week before the \u201cLOTR\u201d project was unveiled on March 24).<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked by co-hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes about what he will do when he leaves the desk at the Ed Sullivan Theater, Colbert kept mum on the specifics, but said, \u201cI\u2019ll tell you, the person who did the thing I most admire \u2014 I mean, not most admire, but the thing that really struck me is, you know what [Bill] Hader did when he left \u2018SNL\u2019? He went and wrote for \u2018South Park\u2019 for a season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert recalled sitting behind Hader at the Emmys shortly after his departure from \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d Hader left the NBC sketch comedy series in 2013 and returned to \u201cSouth Park,\u201d where he had previously worked as a creative consultant, producer and voice actor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018Man, that\u2019s the perfect thing to do.\u2019 Just go serve something that you love already,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cSee, can I be of service to people whose work I really admire? I thought that\u2019s a great thing to do. Don\u2019t even worry about your status of your previous gig. Just go do something you love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert teased that he had plans in the works but would not tell the \u201cSmartless\u201d hosts what they are \u201cbecause then you would go do them. I know what Hollywood is like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSix days later, Warner Bros. would announce \u201cLord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past\u201d via a video from Peter Jackson and Colbert. An outspoken Tolkien fanatic, Colbert explained that the plot of his movie will come from chapters of \u201cThe Fellowship of the Ring\u201d that didn\u2019t make it into Jackson\u2019s 2001 adaptation. He developed the idea with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and eventually worked up the courage to pitch it to Jackson, who helped take it to Warner Bros. Over the last two years, they\u2019ve worked with screenwriter Philippa Boyens to develop a script.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which will come after Andy Serkis\u2019 2027 installment \u201cThe Hunt for Gollum\u201d will take place 14 years after the death of Frodo. \u201cSam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure,\u201d reads the logline. \u201cMeanwhile, Sam\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

\n\tColbert\u2019s final episode of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d will air on May 21 on CBS. In July 2025, the long-running late-night talker was canceled by CBS after 33 years, 11 seasons of which were hosted by Colbert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert recently revealed his unexpected next career move after \u201cThe Late Show\u201d will come to an end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[176783,430,156,111,139,69,5459],"class_list":{"0":"post-366965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-bill-hader","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-stephen-colbert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}