Lord Of The Rings fans surprised by two new prequel movies

The Lord of the Rings fans are surprised to learn that two new prequel movies could be on the way, according to a popular actor.

In May this year, it was announced that we’re getting a new The Lord of the Rings movie and rather than being an adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien novels, The Hunt for Gollum will be a standalone tale.

Check out The Lord of the Rings trailer below!

What’s more, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will be directed by motion capture artist and actor of Gollum, Andry Serkis with Peter Jackson joining the team of producers. At this time, we don’t know much else about the movie other than it will be an origins story for the character formerly known as Sméagol.

There have been reports that Sir Ian McKellen could return as Gandalf as well as Orlando Bloom as Legolas. However, none of those details have been made official, at least not publicly.

As shared in a tweet from DiscussingFilm, Sir Ian McKellen was a guest on This Morning and when asked whether he’d return as Gandalf in The Hunt for Gollum and if there will be more than one film. McKellen said that he has been contacted by those in charge of the movie and that a script “will be arriving sometime in the new year.”

The beloved actor then went on to say “I’m told it's two films.” It was at this point that McKellen had revealed details that he perhaps should not have. But never fear, we still love you.

Being a fan of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I do have some concerns. We know that new scenes and characters are often added to pad a novel to movie adaptation and the Peter Jackson movies were no exception.

However, The Hobbit movie trilogy was stretched out from just one novel, unlike The Lord of the Rings which has three novels and three movies. It’s largely believed by fans that this padded-out Hobbit trilogy was one of the main reasons it wasn't as well received as The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

If The Hunt for Gollum is two movies, it might work in its favour that it’s not adapted from any books, so Andry Serkis essentially has a clean slate. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is expected to be released sometime in 2026.