This question addresses the anticipation and speculation surrounding the possibility of a standalone movie centered around the character Gollum from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” franchise, reflecting the interest of fans in expanding the cinematic universe based on Tolkien’s works.
Gollum, originally known as Smeagol, was a fascinating but villainous character brought to life through the motion-capture performance of actor Andy Serkis in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies between 2001-2014.
While those epic fantasy films told a complete story arc for Gollum spanning his tragic descent into obsession over the One Ring, his role was always in support of the main storylines of the novels. A solo Gollum movie was never confirmed or even rumored to be in development at that point.
However, it’s certainly possible that in the timeframe since August 2023, a Gollum project may have been announced or gone into production. The Lord of the Rings universe remains a valuable IP for Warner Bros. and new derivative works get pitched regularly.
A new Lord of the Rings film centered around the character Gollum is indeed in development and scheduled for release in 2026.
The key points are:
This allows the filmmakers to dive deeper into Gollum’s psyche, tragic backstory, and presumably his time evading capture after the One Ring is destroyed. As an intriguing antihero, there’s certainly a lot of rich material to mine around Gollum.
Getting Peter Jackson involved as a producer also provides continuity and credibility within that universe he helped bring to life so vividly. I’ll be really interested to see who they get to direct, which parts of Gollum’s story they adapt, and if Andy Serkis returns to portray him.