Who’s ready to return to Middle-earth? Ever since Peter Jackson first conjured Tolkien’s fantasy land on screen, audiences have been enthralled by its adventures. And now, beyond The Hobbit films, the animated War Of The Rohirrim, and Prime Video’s small-screen The Rings Of Power, a new big-screen outing is being cooked up to transport audiences back to the land of Hobbits, Elves and Dwarfs: The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum, with Peter Jackson back as producer, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens among the writers, and none other than Gollum himself, Andy Serkis, in the director’s chair.
Over in New Zealand, pre-production is underway on the film, and as Boyens tells Empire – in our Lord Of The Rings 25th anniversary reunion issue – it’ll be worth the wait. “It’s an adventure story with a really strong psychological, interior story that’s going on as well,” she says excitedly. She recently saw Serkis shooting some test footage. “I was on the mo-cap stage, and I said to Andy, ‘Right, assume the position.’ I cannot believe how fit that guy is as he clambered up the structure,” she says. “It’s ridiculous. I’m like, ‘Can you start ageing?’”
Serkis, who writes an exclusive piece for Empire in the new issue, opened up about returning to New Zealand these decades later. It’s a big deal, he says, “revisiting a character that has never really left me, and this time stepping into the directorial shoes of the man who created these important movies that have affected so many people’s lives over the course of the last quarter of a century.” Directing the next Lord Of The Rings film is no small feat. “It is a phenomenal challenge, exciting and of course terrifying at the same time,” Serkis writes. “We have a very specific task ahead of us. A return to Middle-earth, that satisfies the passion and the love that generations of Lord Of The Rings fans have for these stories, whilst also presenting something completely fresh and new for first-timers to Middle-earth, with one of Tolkien’s richest and most complex characters at its heart.” Let the next adventure begin.
Read Empire’s full Lord Of The Rings 25th anniversary reunion celebration – featuring new interviews with Peter Jackson, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, and Philippa Boyens – in the March 2026 issue, on sale Thursday January 15.
