Ian McKellen as Gandalf looking up with alarm in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I hope The Lord of the Rings franchise is not repeating a previous mistake with The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will serve as The Hunt for Gollum‘s director, with Peter Jackson also attached as a producer. The movie is slated for a 2026 release and is expected to feature Serkis reprising the role of Gollum in a story that takes place before the events in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Another familiar franchise actor already attached to the project is Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in each of The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. McKellen shared that he had been approached to play the beloved wizard again and later mentioned that he was told The Hunt for Gollum will be two movies. This development has not yet been officially confirmed, but if it proves to be true, it will follow in the footsteps of a previous misstep for the fantasy franchise.

It Sounds Like The Hunt For Gollum Could Repeat A Lord Of The Rings Franchise Mistake

The Hobbit Shouldn’t Have Been A Trilogy

Bilbo runs through Bag End in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Thorin's Company sitting around the table in Bag End in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Gollum's introduction in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Bilbo looking to the distance in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Bilbo runs through Bag End in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Thorin's Company sitting around the table in Bag End in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Gollum's introduction in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Bilbo looking to the distance in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey

If The Hunt for Gollum is split into two movies, I fear that it will make the same mistake as The Hobbit movies, which took the approximately 300-page source material and needlessly overextended it into a trilogy. Each of the trilogy’s installments was a financial success, and I enjoyed various aspects of each movie, but they were ultimately not an effective adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s source material. This was especially glaring in The Battle of the Five Armies, which mostly focused on a battle that is only a brief part of the book.

Movie
Tomatometer Score
Popcornmeter Score

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
64%
83%

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
74%
85%

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
59%
74%

The Hobbit is supposed to be the story of Bilbo Baggins, but Bilbo misses much of the battle due to being temporarily knocked unconscious. Martin Freeman did a fantastic job portraying Bilbo, but the movie trilogy lost sight of his arc as it progressed and focused more on massive battle sequences and on characters and storylines that were not in the book, including Thorin’s conflict with Azog the Defiler and the inclusion of Legolas. The Hobbit only needed to be two movies at most, while The Hunt for Gollum only needs to be one movie.

Splitting The Hunt For Gollum Into Two Movies Doesn’t Make Sense

It Lacks The Source Material Needed To Be Two Movies

Gollum looking devious in The Lord of the Rings.

While The Hobbit trilogy had a full novel to adapt, The Hunt for Gollum has far less to draw from, as there is no existing source material fully dedicated to this story. There are only references throughout Tolkien’s works, including Aragorn telling the Council of Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring that there was “little need to tell of” what happened while hunting for Gollum. The Battle of the Five Armies did not need to be its own movie, but at least there was enough information in The Hobbit to expand upon the titular conflict.

Even the franchise’s upcoming standalone anime movie, War of the Rohirrim , seems like it has a bigger story to tell than The Hunt for Gollum does, which makes the latter’s two-movie potential even more questionable.

The Hunt for Gollum is based on limited information from Tolkien’s writings, which may make its connections to The Lord of the Rings feel too tenuous. This makes me concerned that there may not be enough to warrant one movie, and splitting the story into two movies only makes the issue worse. Even the franchise’s upcoming standalone anime movie, War of the Rohirrim, seems like it has a bigger story to tell than The Hunt for Gollum does, which makes the latter’s two-movie potential even more questionable.

I Really Hope Ian McKellen’s Lord Of The Rings Movie Update Isn’t True

The Hunt For Gollum Shouldn’t Be Two Movies

Ian McKellen looking surprised as Gandalf the White in The Return of the King.

Since The Hunt for Gollum still seems to be in relatively early stages, I am hoping that it will not actually end up being two movies. I was already concerned that the movie was being made not because it had a compelling story to tell, but because of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav wanting to further capitalize on the popular intellectual properties owned by his company. Taking a dubious premise and potentially already committing to it being two movies does nothing to alleviate those concerns.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the most commercially and critically successful trilogies of all time, but this does not mean that every live-action Middle-earth project needs to be turned into multiple movies. One does not need to be intimately familiar with Lord of the Rings‘ lore to know that there is only so much that can happen with Gollum and the One Ring prior to Fellowship, another sign that multiple installments are not needed. All of these factors leave me hoping The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will only be one movie instead of two.