MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is scheduled for release in cinemas on 17 December 2027 by Warner Bros. It was first planned for 2026, then moved.
The film sits between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, just before The Fellowship of the Ring. In Tolkien's Tale of Years (Appendix B), Gandalf and Aragorn hunt for Gollum at intervals from the year 3009 of the Third Age. Gollum is released from Mordor in 3017 and caught by Aragorn in the Dead Marshes, then taken to Thranduil in Mirkwood, where Gandalf questions him. Unfinished Tales dates the capture to 1 February 3018, a year later. Frodo leaves Bag End in September 3018.
How closely the film will follow this, and how much of The Fellowship of the Ring it will revisit, is not yet known. See the full Lord of the Rings watch order.
Warner Bros. has scheduled it for 17 December 2027 in cinemas. It was originally announced for 2026.
Andy Serkis directs the film and plays Gollum again. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens produce it.
No. Jamie Dornan plays Aragorn, known as Strider, in The Hunt for Gollum.
It is set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien's books, Gandalf and Aragorn search for Gollum from the year 3009 of the Third Age, and Aragorn catches him in the Dead Marshes shortly before Frodo sets out in 3018.
There is no Tolkien book of that name. The hunt is told in a few passages: Gandalf's account in The Fellowship of the Ring, the Tale of Years in Appendix B, and The Hunt for the Ring in Unfinished Tales.
