Stephen Colbert's final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired on May 21, 2026, but the late-night host gave an emotional farewell and then immediately started work on his upcoming Lord of the Rings movie.
The project was first announced during Tolkien Reading Day on March 25, 2026, and was revealed by Warner Bros. and director Peter Jackson in a social media video post,
The working title of the film is The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, and Colbert is writing the pic alongside his son, Peter McGee, and original trilogy screenwriter Philippa Boyens.
This new project is focused on chapters three through eight of The Fellowship of the Ring book, material that Jackson opted to omit from the original trilogy. The film will reportedly pick up 14 years after Frodo "sails West", following Sam, Merry, and Pippin as they revisit their journey from the start.
This section of the book serves to introduce Tom Bombadil, an enigmatic mystery who is of a race much older than the Istari. He slips on the ring, and it has no effect on him as his self-mastery means the ring has nothing to tempt him with. In the books, The Council of Elrond briefly considers asking Tom to be the ring-bearer but Gandalf is against it, as he says that Tom would view the ring as inconsequential and likely misplace it.
The character doesn't appear in any of the main or prequel Lord of the Rings films but makes his live-action debut in Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024, played by Rory Kinnear.
After a series of wins at the recent Emmy Awards, Colbert confirmed he's currently hard at work writing the script.
"That’s what I’m doing. That takes a lot of time, man. You ever written a Lord of the Rings movie? It’s a full-time job," said Colbert.
"Literally, I woke up in New Zealand yesterday. I flew here for the Emmys. Yesterday, [when I was in] New Zealand [it was] was tomorrow there. I went from yesterday to tomorrow, so I don’t know how many days today has been. What did I say in my speech? I was hallucinating up there.”
Fan reaction has been mostly skeptical, as many Tolkien fans are unsure whether 6 chapters are enough to make a full movie.
Colbert's film is expected to be released after Andy Serkis's The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is thought to have a late-2027 release window.