The Lord of the Rings franchise is still moving forward, but one of its more interesting projects has apparently hit the brakes — and there’s a pretty wild bit of corporate irony attached to it.
The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, a project developed by longtime Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert, has reportedly been put on pause following the Warner Bros./Paramount merger.
And yes, that would be the same corporate family that recently fired Colbert from his late-night show.
Colbert announced Shadow of the Past on Tolkien Day earlier this year, revealing that he was writing the movie with his son and longtime LOTR writer Philippa Boyens. The idea was to explore pieces of Tolkien’s story that Peter Jackson’s original trilogy never got to — reportedly including material from several Fellowship of the Ring chapters that were left out of the films.
Honestly, that sounds like exactly the kind of LOTR project I’d want to see.
But now, with Skydance taking control after the merger, the movie has reportedly been slowed down. It had previously been rumored that filming could begin in New Zealand after Andy Serkis finishes The Hunt for Gollum.
The shakeup has already been pretty significant. Warner Bros. executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who had been involved in developing future LOTR projects with Peter Jackson, are now gone. And only a few months ago, Skydance-owned CBS pulled the plug on Colbert’s late-night show, officially blaming declining advertising revenue.
So now the same new corporate ownership that showed Colbert the door is also putting his Lord of the Rings movie on ice.
Coincidence? Probably. Corporate mergers have a way of freezing half the projects in Hollywood while executives figure out what they actually own.
Still… you have to appreciate the irony.
For now, Shadow of the Past has not been canceled. Writers are reportedly still working on drafts, but Warner Bros. apparently wants to see how The Hunt for Gollum performs before committing to more LOTR movies.
That one is still moving forward with Andy Serkis directing and is currently set for December 17, 2027, with Serkis, Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood expected to return.
After the disappointing box office performance of The War of the Rohirrim, you can understand why the studio might suddenly be nervous about throwing Middle-earth money everywhere.
But of all the projects to slow down, the one being written by Stephen Colbert — one of the biggest Tolkien nerds on the planet — is a little painful.
Especially when the people slowing it down are connected to the same company that just fired him.
Hollywood really does know how to write a subplot.
