Earlier this year, we learned that Warner Bros. Discovery was moving forward with The Lord of the Rings: The Shadow of the Past, with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert and his son writing the script alongside franchise veteran Philippa Boyens.
Set fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, the movie's story revolves around Sam, Merry, and Pippin as they 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.
The idea was met with both scepticism and excitement, with many fans eager to pick back up with these iconic Middle-earth characters. Now, though, it seems the project may ultimately fall by the wayside.
According to Knight Edge Media, Skydance—the merged Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures—has decided to hit "pause" on the movie. The idea had been to film shortly after The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum wrapped production, so what's gone wrong?
Well, we don't know exactly, but as the site points out, the Skydance-owned CBS fired Colbert from The Late Show due to his commentary and opposition to President Donald Trump's administration. David Ellison, meanwhile, is thought to be one of Trump's biggest supporters. That seems the most obvious answer.
It also appears the studio is understandably eager to see how The Hunt for Gollum performs before going all-in on another live-action movie, which could be a result of the tepid response to Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and the animated The War of the Rohirrim's box office struggles.
Peter Jackson announced that he'd found a "very special partner" to develop the next Middle-earth-set movie, revealing that Colbert, a J. R. R. Tolkien superfan, was developing a sequel that is rooted in chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring that didn't make it into the 2001 movie.
"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," Colbert said at the time. "It’s basically the chapter 'Three is Company' [Chapter III] through 'Fog on the Barrow-Downs' [Chapter VIII]."
"And I thought, 'Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?'"
We'll have to see what happens, and much likely hinge on The Hunt for Gollum's box office success next December. For now, stay tuned for updates on The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past as we have them.