If there’s anyone that could qualify as a superfan of all things Middle-Earth, it’s talk show host/elder statesnerd Stephen Colbert. As the CBS late night host is wrapping his final months at The Late Show, his post-cancellation fate has been a subject of intense fascination. Well now it appears that the man who’s one with The One Ring is about to co-write a new Lord of the Rings film to succeed The Hunt for Gollum’s 2027 release.
Coming Soon: The Lord of the Rings: Shadow Of The Past
Revealed as part of today’s Tolkien Day celebration, Warner Bros. dropped the news while most of us stateside were sleeping. As this day is when The One Ring was destroyed, and Aragorn became king once more, it’s a red letter date for all Lord of the Rings fans.
Which is the best day to drop the synopsis, and the title, for Mr. Colbert’s entry into the canon – The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. That title is a working name for the project, but the following synopsis is the bedrock for where this new movie will be going:
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.
Unfortunately, there’s no director or concrete release window assigned for this new tale of the Fellowship. What we do know is that Stephen Colbert will be co-writing Shadow of the Past with fellow franchise stalwart/producer Philippa Boyens, as well as screenwriter Peter McGee.
That second name is a pretty huge announcement too, as McGee is Colbert’s son – whom he’s developed the project with over the past couple of years. It’s also a rather fitting partnership, considering what we know about this Lord of the Rings story so far.
The Lord Of The Rings: Shadow Of The Past Will Focus On A Very Specific Window Of Events
Though it has ties in the post-Return of the King era, The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, it’s The Fellowship of The Ring that offers the grist for this story’s mill. As part of his big reveal, Stephen Colbert had a Zoom chat with series mastermind Peter Jackson – in which he laid out just where this new chapter is coming from – as follows:
…the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in [The Fellowship of The Ring] that ya’ll never developed into the first movie, back in the day.
Adapting from “Chapter III: Three’s A Company “ through “Chapter VIII: Fog on the Barrow-Down” is an interesting choice; and no, it’s not because Tom Bombadil may finally make his cinematic debut. That’s because the clear thread running through The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past’s inspiration is that of friendship through hard times past. More specifically, with Sam’s daughter being a player in this story, the value of those lessons to future generations would seem to be key as well.
As we’ll be reuniting with Sam, Merry, and Pippin, their memories of this The Fellowship of The Ring sidequest will serve as a reminder of what it took to defeat the greatest evil of all. In the current climate of world events, that sort of tale is just what people could need; especially if Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd reprise their respective roles to do so.
We will have to wait and see how things come together, especially with Stephen Colbert’s once and future bosses from Paramount on-going acquisition of Warner Bros. However, if you want to relive The Lord of the Rings trilogy, all you need is an HBO Max subscription. For all other things new, exciting, and dare I say precious in pop culture, keep a browser window tuned to the THS Movie News Archive for all future developments.
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