Lord of the Rings stars Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood return for Hunt for Gollum

Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood will reprise their roles as the wizard Gandalf and Hobbit Frodo Baggins, respectively, in Andy Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Warner Bros. confirmed the cast of the new Lord of the Rings movie at CinemaCon 2026 on Tuesday and revealed a poster, with Gollum prominently featured.

The film, which is scheduled to be released in theaters in 2027, will also bring back Lee Pace as the Elvenking Thranduil. Kate Winslet was previously revealed to star in the film, and she’ll be playing the character Marigol.

Of course, Serkis will also return, playing both Gollum and Smeagol in the project. The Hunt for Gollum will be the first live-action film based on the books of J.R.R. Tolkien since The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies was released in 2014.

Two actors new to the Lord of the Rings film franchise were also confirmed: Jamie Dornan will play a young Strider (aka Aragorn) and Leo Woodall will portray Halvard. Woodall was previously rumored to be in the running for Aragorn, taking over from Viggo Mortensen.

Serkis set a new standard for motion capture performances with his portrayal of the pitiful, ring-obsessed Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The actor went on to use those same skills in Jackson’s version of King Kong in 2005, and the Planet of the Apes reboot that kicked off in 2011. He’s also used his extensive knowledge of CGI to direct Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

The Hunt for Gollum will likely cover the time between Bilbo’s 111th birthday and Gandalf’s return to the Shire, covered in the first chapters of Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring but cut from the 2001 film. Gandalf enlisted Aragorn to track down Gollum so he could learn where Bilbo’s ring came from and whether it was actually the One Ring that Sauron was searching for. It’s been more than two decades since Viggo Mortensen played Isildur’s heir, so it’s unclear if the actor is returning to drag a screaming CGI creature across Middle-earth/New Zealand.

Serkis and screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou will have to turn a few pages of text about what sounds like a pretty miserable experience for all the characters involved into an entertaining movie. They will likely draw from The Hunt for the Ring, a chapter in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien’s posthumous work edited by his son Christopher, which follows the journey of the Black Riders after Gollum’s release from Mordor.

Warner Bros. Discovery is also working on another live-action LOTR project, which is tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past. Filming on season 3 of the Prime Video prequel series The Rings of Power has been completed, but a release date hasn’t been announced yet.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is slated for a theatrical release on Dec. 17, 2027. It’s currently scheduled to hit theaters on the same day as Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Secret Wars. Though maybe Warner Bros. and Marvel are hoping they can capitalize on some Barbenheimer-style double features, similar to the “Dunesday” matchup later this year between Dune: Part 3 and Avengers: Doomsday.