Stephen Colbert Is Writing the Next Lord of the Rings Movie

When Smaug closes a door, he opens a window. CBS may be pulling the plug on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert after this season, but Colbert is off to greener pastures, literally. The late-night host and avowed Tolkien head is developing the script for the next Lord of the Rings film. Colbert joined Peter Jackson to break the news in a “Hunt for Gollum update” posted to Warner Bros.’ official accounts today.

Colbert is working on the project with his son, also named Peter, and says it will be an adaptation of a section of The Fellowship of the Ring book “that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day,” spanning Chapter III (“Three’s Company”) to Chapter VIII (“Fog on the Barrow-Downs”). Colbert and his son came up with a framing device to justify this not-quite-a-prequel, not-quite-a-sequel, but rather an elided section taking place within the early events of the first film, so as to be “faithful to the books while being faithful to the movies you’ve already made.” As Colbert tells it, he called Jackson two years ago and pitched him on the idea, which eventually led to a seal of approval from New Line and Warner Bros. At first, Colbert didn’t think he could devote time to the project while filming Late Show, “but it turns out I’m going to be free starting this summer”

Colbert is famously a fan of Lord of the Rings, making a cameo appearance in The Desolation of Smaug and shooting an extended Lord of the Rings–themed segment for The Late Show with Peter Jackson in 2019. But why did he choose these chapters of Fellowship to adapt into a movie of their own? He doesn’t say in the video, but to anyone familiar with the books and with Colbert’s style of comedy, the answer is clear, and it’s two words: Tom. Bombadil. These are the chapters that feature the merry trickster of the forest, Tom Bombadil, a classic fiddle-dee-dee-mischief type who waylays the hobbits at the onset of their quest. He more or less has nothing to do with the actual plot of the series and was therefore cut out of the original trilogy entirely. Colbert’s hidden agenda is almost definitely that this will be a Tom Bombadil picture, that he will do for Tom Bombadil what Andy Serkis did for Gollum. Brace yourselves, true fantasy appreciators. Tom Bombadil is coming.