re: WB to Release First New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ in 2026

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Why is this worth a movie? Did it happen between Fellowship and ROTK?

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It actually happens between The Hobbit and Fellowship as well as taking place during the first half of Fellowship. The film glosses over this, but Gandalf is gone for years between Bilbo’s 111th Birthday Party and reuniting with Frodo. He and Aragorn are hunting for Gollum during this time, but Sauron finds him first. Gandalf alludes to this in Fellowship: “I looked everywhere for the creature Gollum, but the enemy found him first.”

The reason Gandalf knew that Gollum told Sauron about the Ring, the Shire, and Baggins is after Gollum was set loose from Barad-dur, Aragorn and Gandalf managed to capture and question him. This is also how Gandalf knows Gollum’s actual name of Sméagol. They then imprison him in Mirkwood with Legolas, and a major reason Legolas was at the Council of Elrond was to alert them that Gollum had escaped and was going to pursue the Ring again.

But I don’t know if there’s enough story here to have an entire movie made about it.