New Lord of the Rings movie coming from LOTR nerd Stephen Colbert

Warner Bros. has yet another Lord of the Rings movie in development — tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past — and we have J.R.R. Tolkien superfan and soon-to-be-former The Late Show host Stephen Colbert to thank. Colbert and Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson revealed Wednesday that they’re working together on an adaptation of material from The Fellowship of the Ring that never made it into Jackson’s film.

In a video posted across Warner Bros.’ social media channels, Jackson offered update on Andy Serkis’ The Hunt for Gollum, saying, “It’s looking amazing. The script is coming together really well, and I think it’s going to be a really good film.” Jackson then announced “another film that we’ll be making after The Hunt for Gollum,” and welcomed a “very special partner” in Colbert.

Colbert then explained the project, which he said will be based on a chapter from The Fellowship of the Ring: Chapter VIII, “Fog on the Barrow-downs.”

“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” Colbert told Jackson. “But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship [of the Ring] that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day. It’s basically the chapter ‘Three is Company’ through ‘Fog on the Barrow-downs.’ 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?'”

Colbert said that he started discussing the idea with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, developed a “framing device for that story,” and pitched it to Jackson. They then teamed up with Philippa Boyens, screenwriter on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, and got the green light from New Line and Warner Bros. Colbert said he hopes the project will be “completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies.”

Here’s the synopsis for The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past, as reported by Variety:

Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo – Sam, Merry, and Pippin 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.

“Fog on the Barrow-downs” tells the story of Hobbits Frodo, Merry, and Pippin journeying to the Barrow-downs, where they become lost in a fog and are captured by the Barrow-wights. The chapter includes an appearance from Tom Bombadil, a character who was cut from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and later appeared in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Shadows of the Past‘s variation on the story of “Fog on the Barrow-downs” certainly opens the door for actors Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan to reprise their roles.

Colbert is famously a Tolkien diehard, routinely flexing his knowledge of Middle-earth on his talk show. In recent weeks, he’s geeked out over The Lord of the Rings with actors Ian McKellan and Elijah Wood (the latter is rumored to reprise his role as Frodo in the future). Colbert even parlayed his fandom into a non-speaking cameo role in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past does not have an announced release date. The next film in the franchise, The Hunt for Gollum, hits theaters on Dec. 17, 2027.