At the moment, in the world of The Lord of the Rings, there’s a lot of focus on Andy Serkis’ movie, The Hunt for Gollum. Meanwhile, in the land of late-night, the fact that Stephen Colbert’s show is ending on the 2026 TV schedule has been a primary point of discussion for months. However, as his show ends and LOTR continues to expand its universe, the worlds are colliding in what might seem to be a surprising way. However, upon reflection, it’s actually not shocking to me at all that Colbert’s next project will be writing a Lord of the Rings movie.
Stephen Colbert Is Writing A Lord Of The Rings Movie
In honor of Tolkien Reading Day, Peter Jackson appeared in a video where he provided updates on The Hunt for Gollum and announced a new project that’s in development. He also revealed that said project is being co-written by Stephen Colbert. And yes, I do mean the host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Explaining what exactly this movie is, the late-night host said:
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. It’s basically the chapter ‘Three is Company’ through ‘Fog on the Barrow-Downs.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, wait! Maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movie that you guys had already made?
Colbert went on to explain that he spoke about this idea with his son, Peter, who is a screenwriter, and they worked out a “framing device” for this tale. I’ll let The Late Show host take the story from here, as he said:
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. You liked it enough to talk to me about it. Ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop this story.
Then, they took the story to New Line Cinema and Warner Bros, and they “loved it.” That led to a lighthearted quip about Colbert being “free this summer” to take on this big undertaking, seeing as The Late Show was canceled. Well, I guess even the saddest of life changes come with silver linings, as the comedian cheerfully said:
If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish a television show, and I’ve got to write a movie script. But I will see you all in The Shire.
Now, speaking of that show that’s ending, it’s through years of Colbert’s work on it that I realized he’s actually the perfect person to take on a LOTR movie.
Why This News Actually Isn’t Surprising, And Is Very Exciting
So, in this announcement video, Colbert’s love and knowledge of Lord of the Rings is on display between his decorations in the background and the way in which he speaks about what he’s adapting. However, over the years he has hosted The Late Show, he’s shown off his LOTR knowledge and love on multiple occasions.
For example, four years ago, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who played Merry and Pippin, tried to stump Colbert by giving him LOTR trivia:
Those weren’t easy questions – I mean, they asked him about forest geography and deep lore. And while Colbert didn’t get one of them, he did get the other two with ease. Then, as a prize, they gave him ears from the movie, and he was so overjoyed.
On top of that, nine years ago, Colbert answered crowd questions about LOTR on his show. This included him going on a tangent about Frodo being able to throw the ring in the fire that ended with him saying, “Gandalf did not put as much thought into this as I have." He also dove into some deep Gandalf lore:
The examples don’t end there either. He has had many LOTR cast members on the show, and a lot of the time, the movies come up, and he joyfully speaks about the franchise with them. He’s also talked about Lord of the Rings with guests like Florence Pugh and Ryan Gosling.
All this is to say, Stephen Colbert cares deeply about this franchise, and he really knows his stuff. So, no, it’s not surprising that he’s writing a movie. In fact, it actually makes so much sense, and I think he’ll do a great job with it.
