In addition to this Colbert-led movie, The Rings of Power Season 3 is currently in production, and yet another brand-new movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, is also in the works. While this number of projects might not seem shocking for a franchise like Star Wars or Marvel, The Lord of the Rings is far from either.
In fact, for several years, the franchise essentially went quiet. Now, however, it’s back with a movie reportedly set about 14 years after the original trilogy. The new movie won’t be expanding on those stories in the way audiences might expect, though. Rather, it’s taking a page out of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’s book—literally.
Stephen Colbert’s Lord Of The Rings Movie Is Based On A Book Chapter The Movie Trilogy Left Out
Although Shadow of the Past will take place 14 years after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it seemingly won’t really feel like a continuation of that story.
Instead, the movie will reportedly be taking its story from chapters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Fellowship of the Ring that weren’t used in Peter Jackson’s movie(s). Those will reportedly span chapters 3 to 8 in The Fellowship of the Ring, concluding with “Fog on the Barrow-Downs.”
In that chapter in particular, the four main hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, travel to the Barrow-Downs. The hobbits ultimately get lost and are captured by the Barrow-wights, which are terrifying undead creatures. Thankfully, they are eventually saved by Tom Bombadil, a powerful being in The Lord of the Rings who actually has no appearance in the original trilogy movies.
However, as the chapter’s place early in The Fellowship of the Ring suggests, this is far from a story that takes place after The Return of the King.
Instead, it’s clear that this movie will be some sort of flashback story, likely coinciding with or framed by the hobbits’ lives 14 years after the original trilogy concluded. This would make sense, given that Sam’s daughter is also mentioned as a character in the upcoming movie, and she didn’t exist until after the hobbits had returned from their long journey.
How The New Lord Of The Rings Movie Is A Sequel When It Adapts The Book
While it might seem odd that a few chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring are being adapted into a book set several years later—and, obviously, the execution of that idea remains to be seen—Colbert has made it clear that this has already been planned for.
He specifically referenced a “framing device” that will allow Shadow of the Past to tell this story without disrupting the Lord of the Rings chronology, which almost certainly means that there will be two parts to this story: the ‘present’ day, 14 years after The Return of the King with Sam’s daughter, and the past, which will take place during these Fellowship of the Ring chapters.
There are other possibilities, including that the stories from these chapters may simply be taken from The Fellowship of the Ring and used in this new time period, but that seems unlikely. For one, that seems to go against what Colbert has already promised audiences in terms of not disrupting the chronology.
Along with that comes the fact that Colbert is known to be a massive Lord of the Rings fan. It feels incredibly likely that he would do anything that he or others could perceive as disrespecting these stories or Tolkien’s legacy. Of course, it’s possible that there’s another, currently unknown third option regarding the story’s approach.
At present, Shadow of the Past has no official release date, but it will almost certainly be years before viewers get to see The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past and learn how exactly this timeline question will be navigated.