When The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was announced, director Andy Serkis indicated that AI may be utilized for the movie, and the filmmaker has now confirmed that, "There’s a little bit of de-aging for some of the characters and machine learning is part of the process."
"When you think about it, in the original Lord of the Rings films, Peter created MASSIVE, which was a program which allowed 1000s of orcs to all have their own individual mindset. So that is a brilliant example of an incredible use of AI. But we’re not creating AI shots in our movie, every shot is created in a traditional way. One of the things actually that I really wanted to do with this film was to bring back all of the great filmmaking skills, from miniatures to prosthetics and marry them up, because that’s my taste. I like it when you mix up different filmmaking techniques."
Serkis declined to reveal which characters will be de-aged, but we assume it'll be Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) and Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood).
Last month, Warner Bros. officially announced that Anya Taylor-Joy (Dune: Part Three, Furiosa, The New Mutants) had joined the cast as Seren. This character is described as a "Sindar Elf of the Woodland Realm and a trusted, lethal agent of King Thranduil."
Seren doesn't appear in any of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, and was likely added to the movie as a new ally to join Aragorn on his quest.
Taylor-Joy recently addressed her casting for the first time, though she didn't share any new details about her character.
"I mean, I feel like I've been an Elf my whole life, so it feels very validating to go and actually do it as a job," she joked. "I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, I'm a huge fan of Andy Serkis. I think he's a wonderful man and a wonderful, innovative creator. So I think just being able to be a part of this world and inhabit this character is a dream come true."
“It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker – Gollum!,” Jackson, Boyens and Walsh said in a statement when the film was announced. “As life long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”
“Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa,” added Serkis. “With Mike and Pam, and the Warner Bros team on the quest as well, alongside WETA and our film making family in New Zealand, it’s just all too delicious…”.
“For over two-decades, moviegoers have embraced the Lord of the Rings film trilogy because of the undeniable devotion Peter, Fran and Philippa have shown towards protecting the legacy of Tolkien’s works, and to ensure audiences could experience the incredible world he created in a way that honors his literary vision,” WBD film chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca added. “We are honored they have agreed be our partners on these two new films. With Andy coming aboard to direct Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum(*WT), we continue an important commitment to excellence that is a true hallmark of how we all want to venture ahead and further contribute to the Lord of the Rings cinematic history.”