Lord of the Rings' Peter Jackson Reveals Where The Hunt for Gollum and Shadow of the Past Stand

The cinematic future of Middle-earth is coming along nicely, according to Peter Jackson.

The Oscar-winner gave an update on The Hunt for Gollum and Shadow of the Past, while accepting the Grand Honorary Prize at this year's Sitges Film Festival in Spain Oct. 10.

"We have The Shadow of the Past, which is in the scriptwriting stage," he said (via ScreenRant). "The Hunt for Gollum is almost finished filming. I think there are about two weeks of shooting left. And we've also already written the script for Tintin 2, the second Tintin film. That will be the next film I make."

The Hunt for Gollum is written by Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou and directed by Andy Serkis, who is also playing the titular character.

The film will bridge the gap between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring by following a young Aragon (Jamie Dornan taking over from Viggo Mortensen) hoping to track down the One Ring before Sauron can. Jackson teased that the film dives into the psychology of Gollum, whose mind and body were corrupted by the dangerous bling.

"We were thinking about the original Joker film, the one with Joaquin Phoenix," Jackson explained. "The way that explored the Joker’s psychology while it was telling a story. We’ve got the story that’s in the appendices, and we’ll tell that story, but we’ll tell it from an internal Gollum perspective. You’re taking written things by Tolkien and filming them from a certain POV, and that means you have to get inside his head. I’ve got no particular desire to get inside Gollum’s head. Andy Serkis can do that himself."

Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen are both back as Frodo and Gandalf, respectively, with Kate Winslet (Marigol), Lee Pace (Elven monarch Thranduil) and Leo Woodall (Halvard, a member of Aragorn's hunting party) rounding out the cast.

When Does The Hunt for Gollum Come Out?

Warner Bros. has the movie slated for release on Dec. 17, 2027—the same day as Avengers: Secret Wars.

The Shadow of the Past, meanwhile, serves as a sequel to Return of the King, reportedly taking place 14 years after Frodo's death. Lord of the Rings super-fan Stephen Colbert is writing the screenplay alongside his son Peter McGee and Boyens.

Despite taking place after the main saga, the film will adapt chapters three through eight in The Fellowship of the Ring, which didn't make it into Jackson's adaptation. With that said, it sounds as though we'll be jumping between past and future.

"I thought, 'Oh, wait—maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story,'" he explained during a special video announcement earlier this year (watch below). "Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?"

"[Peter and I] worked out what we thought would work, especially as a framing device for that story," he continued. "It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call, but two years ago I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it and ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop the story. We recently took it to [Warner Bros. and New Line], and I could not be happier to say that they loved it."