Overview
- Warner Bros., in a video with Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, confirmed the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past and named Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee as Colbert’s co-writers.
- An official synopsis sets the story 14 years after Frodo’s passing as Sam, Merry, and Pippin retrace their first steps, while Sam’s daughter Elanor pursues a buried secret tied to the War of the Ring.
- Colbert said the film uses a framing device to draw from six early Fellowship of the Ring chapters that Jackson’s 2001 movie omitted, material that includes the Barrow-downs and Tom Bombadil.
- The film is in development with no director or release date announced, and it will be produced alongside Jackson’s longtime partners Fran Walsh and Boyens for New Line/Warner Bros.
- Shadow of the Past follows Andy Serkis’s The Hunt for Gollum on the studio slate, with that film dated for December 17, 2027, and the new announcement landing on Tolkien Reading Day as Colbert exits The Late Show in May.