New ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie announced for 2026

A new “Lord of the Rings” movie was announced by Warner Bros on Thursday, marking a cinematic return to the Oscar-winning film franchise based on the novels by JRR Tolkien.

The new film, the first of two that will explore previously untold stories in the universe, will see Lord of the Rings trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson back at the helm, along with Andy Serkis, who still star in and direct the first of these films, “The Hunt for Gollum.”

“Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends,” Serkis said in a statement, playing off the slithery, CGI-rendered Gollum character that he performed to much acclaim in the original film trilogy.

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav first announced the new films during an earnings call Thursday, with “The Hunt for Gollum” tentatively scheduled to release in 2026. The film’s script is still being written.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy from Jackson adapted Tolkien’s classic novels, originally released in the ’50s. Those books — “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King” — center on a young hobbit named Frodo and his friends, tasked with bringing a destructive magical ring to its demise in the fiery land of Mordor, with plenty of skirmishes between kings, elves, wizards and orcs along the way.