Stephen Colbert in Dec. 2025.
Angela Weiss/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Angela Weiss/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Stephen Colbert is co-writing a brand new Lord of the Rings film, Warner Bros. Photos and New Line Cinema introduced.
“We have got a really particular associate that we’re working with,” mentioned filmmaker Peter Jackson in a video shared throughout social media at midnight on Wednesday earlier than introducing the comic and Late Present host by way of video name.
Colbert is a Tolkien fan — he even had a cameo look in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013. He’ll co-write a brand new film together with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and LOTR veteran screenwriter Philippa Boyens. Its working title is Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Previous.
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Colbert mentioned within the video with Jackson that the movie will adapt six early chapters — “Three is corporate” by means of “Fog on the Barrow-downs” — from The Fellowship of the Ring, the primary ebook of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. These chapters weren’t a part of the primary movie.
“I assumed, ‘Oh wait, possibly that could possibly be its personal story that would match into the bigger story,'” Colbert mentioned. “‘Might we make one thing that was fully trustworthy to the books whereas additionally being fully trustworthy to the flicks that you just guys had already made?'”
Colbert mentioned he and his son, McGee, labored out what they thought is likely to be a framing machine for the story.
“It took me just a few years for me to scrape my braveness right into a pile to present you a name,” joked Colbert to Jackson.
Warner Bros. despatched the movie’s synopsis in a launch: “Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo – Sam, Merry, and Pippin got down to retrace the primary steps of their journey. In the meantime, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has found a long-buried secret and is decided to uncover why the Warfare of the Ring was very practically misplaced earlier than it even started.”
Shadow of the Previous is one in all two upcoming movies within the Lord of the Rings franchise. Andy Serkis, who performs Gollum within the movies, is directing The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which takes place in between the fictional timelines of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Warner Bros. has not introduced a launch date for Shadow of the Previous, however it’s going to come after The Hunt for Gollum, which is anticipated in Dec. 2027.
“I didn’t suppose I would have the time,” Colbert laughed within the video about discovering the hours to work on the brand new film. However, he mentioned, “It seems I am gonna be free beginning this summer season.”
Final 12 months, CBS introduced that it was canceling The Late Present with Stephen Colbert, days after Colbert publicly criticized Paramount — CBS’s mother or father firm — for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Trump over claims that CBS interfered within the 2024 election by airing edited segments of an interview with Kamala Harris. The Late Present will air its remaining episode on Could 21, greater than 30 years after David Letterman first hosted in 1993.
Paramount can be set to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery in a large practically $111 billion merger deal.
“For those who’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta end a tv present and I’ve gotta write a film script, however I’ll see you all within the shire,” Colbert mentioned within the video.
