And by “divided” I mean “extremely angry”.

A recent slip-up has revealed that a second live-action Lord of the Rings film is on its way, which has of course upset several people.

Empire’s recent article by Ben Travis featured an interview with screenwriter Philippa Boyens, who previously worked on several of the Lord of the Rings films. This includes all three original films in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and all three films in The Hobbit’s trilogy.

As Boyens revealed to Empire, the upcoming film The Hunt For Gollum will be a single, standalone movie. Many had assumed it was going to be a two-part film, due to a misunderstanding on the part of Gandalf’s actor Sir Ian McKellen.

It seems McKellen’s mistake wasn’t entirely untrue however, as Boyens explained that it likely originated from discussions with the actor about a completely different live-action Lord of the Rings film that’s in the early stages of pre-production.

“That was a genuine misunderstanding that happened because we’ve begun to work, conceptually, on two different live-action films. The first being The Hunt For Gollum, the second one still to be confirmed.” Boyens explained.

Of course, this is a reveal on its own. The interview confirms that a completely new LOTR film will come out after The Hunt For Gollum, which people aren’t happy about.

Several comments on DiscussingFilm’s tweet discussing the reveal are extremely negative, such as this one from user @SirJoshFord.

“Doubt they’ll have the same care, time and attention that LOTR had… You can tell that they had less time & the quality couldn’t be replicated to that same effect for The Hobbit films.”

“Why do they wanna milk this franchise more than necessary…” replied user @mind_talkss. “The 3 movies from Peter jackson were perfect let’s leave it that at”

Personally, I think the fact that Boyens, Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis are involved with The Hunt For Gollum should imply the project will be treated with care and authenticity.

Many seem to forget that The Hobbit trilogy’s production process was extremely rough, with Jackson being brought on at the last minute to help steer it. The decision to split it into a trilogy was also completely out of Jackson’s hands.

By the time it releases, The Hunt For Gollum will have been in production for roughly three years.

For comparison, The Hobbit trilogy of films were only in production for roughly 266 days, with Jackson only coming on board to help salvage the project five months before filming began. Post-production for the first film in the trilogy only ended a mere two days before its premiere.

So I say, let them cook. I’m quietly looking forward to seeing what they can do with The Hunt For Gollum, and beyond.