The Hunt for Gollum Begins Production

Filming has officially started for The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum which is aiming for a December 17, 2027 release date. The occasion was marked by video below with film's director Andy Serkis also prepping to reprise his role as Gollum.

Serkis also spoke with Variety after a day of filming and answered a few questions. One of the questions was the use of AI in the film where he said "“Not at present, other than some of the de-aging. There’s a little bit of de-aging for some of the characters and machine learning is part of the process. When you think about it, in the original “The Lord of the Rings” films, Peter created MASSIVE, which was a program which allowed 1000s of orcs to all have their own individual mindset. So that is a brilliant example of an incredible use of AI. But we’re not creating AI shots in our movie, every shot is created in a traditional way. One of the things actually that I really wanted to do with this film was to bring back all of the great filmmaking skills, from miniatures to prosthetics and marry them up, because that’s my taste. I like it when you mix up different filmmaking techniques." 

He was asked who was being de-aged but he wouldn't provide an answer but safe to assume at least Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) considering the film expands on a period of time that occurred between two scenes in Fellowship of the Ring.

Anya Taylor-Joy Joins The Hunt for Gollum

The Warner Bros. Twitter/X account has officially revealed "Welcome to the hunt, Anya Taylor-Joy. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum only in theaters 17 December 2027." with an image of her character Seren holding a bow. Nothing more was revealed. 

Deadline reports her role is "a Sindar Elf of the Woodland Realm, a trusted and lethal agent of King Thranduil (Lee Pace)." 

These are the same elves and king that Bilbo and the dwarves were in conflict with in the Hobbit trilogy. Anya Taylor-Joy was lead in The Queen's Gambit, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and voiced Princess Peach in The Super Mario movies.

The Rings of Power Set for November 2026 Release

Prime Video revealed that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 will start its run on November 11, 2026. The number of episodes wasn't provided but likely 8 as with previous seasons. Currently Amazon remains committed to completing the five season order of the show. 

The current short description of the season is "Season Three takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war, bind all peoples to his will – and at last rule all Middle-earth." 

Its not clear if the "War of the Elves and Sauron" is separate to or an early reference to the War of the Last Alliance which is when Elves and Men join together to eventually defeat Sauron in the Battle of Dagorlad that is depicted in the opening sequence of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.