Stephen Colbert to Co-Write New Lord of the Rings Film With Peter Jackson

Colbert announced in January that the final episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will air on May 21, but he already has his next act locked in. The late-night host is embarking on what is arguably his dream project: adapting the next Lord of the Rings movie from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros., tentatively titled "The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past," to be written by Colbert, Philippa Boyens, and Peter McGee.

Peter Jackson teased his "very special partner" in a video announcement, then patched Colbert in through a video call. "I'm pretty happy about it," Colbert told Jackson, who led the Oscar-winning team behind the nearly $6 billion original "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies. Warner Bros. shared the announcement on Tolkien Reading Day.

The idea originated with Colbert himself. "The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship that y'all never developed into the first movie back in the day," Colbert said. "It's basically chapters 'Three Is Company' through 'Fog on the Barrow-downs.'" These chapters were not part of the first film. The story also includes a fan favorite character omitted from the previous films, Tom Bombadil.

Colbert discussed the idea with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and worked out a "framing device" for the film. After the groundwork was laid, Colbert called Jackson, and over the last two years, the team worked with screenwriter Philippa Boyens to develop a script. "It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call, but about two years ago I did," Colbert told Jackson. "You liked it enough to talk to me about it, and ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop this story."

Warner Bros. released the film's official synopsis: "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."

"Shadow of the Past" marks the second of two upcoming features in the pipeline from Warner Bros. and its New Line division. Next up is "The Hunt for Gollum," slated for release on December 17, 2027. Andy Serkis, who plays Gollum in the films, is directing "The Hunt for Gollum," which takes place in between the fictional timelines of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." Warner Bros. has not announced a release date for "Shadow of the Past," but it will come after "The Hunt for Gollum."

Over the course of his career, first on "The Colbert Report" and then on "The Late Show," Colbert made his Tolkien obsession one of the most well-documented fan relationships in television history. He has debated Elvish linguistics on air, beaten the franchise's own Oscar-winning screenwriter in a trivia contest, and directed a Middle-earth short film starring the original cast. Peter Jackson, who has met a few Tolkien fans in his time, declared him the biggest he had ever encountered. Colbert even had a cameo appearance in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" in 2013.

"I thought, 'Oh wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story,'" Colbert said. "'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?'" Two years of development work later, Warner Bros. is betting the answer is yes.