Stephen Colbert Is a ‘Lord of the Rings’ Superfan — Now He's Writing the Next Movie
You know Stephen Colbert as a late-night talk show host. What you might not know is that his obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien runs so deep that Peter Jackson once said of him.
“I have never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life. His encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkien is spectacular, and points to a deprived childhood in some respects,” Jackson said of Colbert in a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Now, 14 years later, that fandom has turned into something no one saw coming: Colbert is writing the script for a brand-new Lord of the Rings film.
Warner Bros. chose Tolkien Reading Day — March 25 — to share the news. In a video posted on X, LOTR director Peter Jackson first gave an update on The Hunt for Gollum, the franchise’s next film slated for 2027.
“Andy is doing a terrific job. It’s looking amazing,” Jackson said of actor and director Andy Serkis. “The script is coming together really well and I think it’s going to be a really good film.”
Then Jackson pivoted to something bigger — a second film set to follow The Hunt for Gollum. But instead of making the announcement alone, he phoned a friend.
That friend was Stephen Colbert.
Stephen Colbert: From Superfan to Screenwriter
Colbert, who will be entering a new chapter of his career when The Late Show with Stephen Colbert retires on May 21, 2026, has been tapped to write the script for the film, which will be titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past.
“You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me,” he told Jackson.
Colbert explained that he came up with the idea for the film with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, before discussing it with Jackson two years ago. Colbert and McGee then worked with Philippa Boyens on the script.
“It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call,” Colbert said in the video. “But about two years ago, I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it.”
The film will focus on chapters three through six from the first LOTR book, The Fellowship of the Ring, and will officially serve as a sequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The logline, according to Variety, gives a preview of what fans can expect from the film.
“Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo — Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure,” the logline reads. “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.”
Colbert’s Tolkien Credentials Run Deep
While it’s Colbert’s first foray into blockbuster development, this didn’t come out of nowhere — at least not for anyone paying attention.
His fandom resulted in Colbert, along with his wife and kids, making a cameo in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second installment of The Hobbit trilogy.
He also moderated a panel for The Hobbit at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2014 and wrote, directed and starred in Darrylgorn, an eight-minute short film set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, per Variety.
So the next time someone tells you they’re a fan of something, take note. Apparently, if you love it enough — and know enough — you might just get to write the next chapter yourself.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
