March 25th is Tolkien Reading Day, a day set aside to honor the works of J.R.R. Tolkien in which we fans read the works of the man (as if we needed an excuse to do this, but apparently we do). The day was chosen because in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in the book Return of the King, it is the day upon which the One Ring is brought to Mount Doom to be destroyed, and the day the Dark Tower (Barad-dûr), the stronghold of Sauron, fell.
Today is also the day that Warner Bros. chose to reveal a new project being formed as a partnership between director Peter Jackson and lifelong Tolkien fan Stephen Colbert. Watch the video.
The new project is tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. It is being co-written by Stephen Colbert, along with veteran Lord of the Rings writer Philippa Boyens and screenwriter Peter McGee.
The story is based on an early section of The Fellowship of the Ring, centering on the chapters “Three is Company” through “Fog on the Barrow-Downs”. These chapters were skipped over in the original Lord of the Rings movies filmed by Jackson.
The narrative follows Sam, Merry, and Pippin 14 years after Frodo’s passing as they retrace the steps of their original adventure. It also features Sam’s daughter, Elanor, who discovers a secret that reveals why the War of the Ring was almost lost. The film will include fan-favorite Tom Bombadil, a character famously omitted from Peter Jackson’s original trilogy.
The project is supported by New Line Cinema and Warner Bros., with scripting expected to begin in the summer. It is separate from the other upcoming film, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is being directed by Andy Serkis and is slated for a December 2027 release.
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