The Lord of the Rings prequel movie The Hunt for Gollum will include the characters of Gandalf and Frodo, the legendary actor Ian McKellen has confirmed.
The surprise casting details were announced by Gandalf himself during a Lord of the Rings panel at London’s For the Love of Fantasy fan convention this weekend, where McKellen and Frodo actor Elijah Wood were in attendance.
There, McKellen stood up to address the audience and offer up fresh details of The Hunt for Gollum, including a new start date for its New Zealand-set shoot, and confirmation that two members of the Fellowship will be in the movie, to whoops and cheers from fans.
“Well, I hear there’s going to be another movie set in Middle-earth,” McKellen began. “And it’s going to start to filming in May. It’s going to be directed by Gollum, and it’s all about Gollum.”
Here, McKellen is referring to the fact that returning Gollum actor Andy Serkis will also be in the director’s chair for the movie, after previously serving as a second unit director on Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film trilogy.
“And I’ll tell you two secrets about casting,” McKellen continued. “There’s a character in the movie called Frodo. And there’s another character called Gandalf. And apart from that my lips are sealed.”
Confirmation that Frodo, in particular, will appear in The Hunt for Gollum comes as something of a surprise, as the movie’s story is expected to be set between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings film trilogies. Quite how he might fit in is unclear, but fans have already come up with a couple of possibilities.
@gronkcosplay HUGE hunt for Gollum casting announcement #huntforgollum #ianmckellen #castingannouncement #lotr #breakingnews ♬ original sound – Gronk Cosplay
In general, the movie is set to fill in the blanks of Gollum’s story following his encounter with Bilbo in The Hobbit, after which he loses the Ring, up until the events of The Lord of the Rings, in which he encounters Frodo.
During this period, numerous characters search for Gollum to question him over the Ring’s wearabouts, including Gandalf (whose appearance in the movie is therefore less of a shock), Aragorn, and even Sauron, via his army — something seen very briefly in Fellowship of the Ring, where the words “Baggins” and “Shire” are extracted from Gollum via torture.
One theory among fans is that this movie will feature the same flashback framing device of Frodo writing in Bilbo’s book as in the Hobbit films, this time including detail he’s learned of Gollum’s origins and tragic backstory. Another idea is that the film simply continues Gollum’s story up to and including his meeting with Frodo. Either way, though, it will be interesting to see how the movie handles the fact that Elijah Wood is now significantly older than he was when he portrayed the character’s exit from Middle-earth, sailing off into the sunset via a boat from the Grey Havens.
On a related note, Legolas actor Orlando Bloom previously expressed interest in returning, though suggested “AI would have to come into play.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is set to release in theaters on December 27, 2027.
Image credit: Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
