Warner Bros. has released the first footage from the set of “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” confirming that principal photography is underway in New Zealand and giving fans an early look at Andy Serkis stepping back into the role that made him famous.
The brief clip shows Serkis walking onto the set in a motion-capture suit, flipping through pages of the script and asking a crew member, “What are we gonna start with?” He then drops into Gollum’s signature crouch, hunching his shoulders and twisting his face into the character’s familiar snarl before someone off-camera calls for the first take. The footage cuts to a sweeping drone shot of the country’s mountain ranges, the same terrain that shaped Peter Jackson’s original trilogy two decades ago.
This marks Serkis’s first appearance as Gollum in 14 years, and his first time directing a “Lord of the Rings” film. He worked previously as second unit director on Jackson’s “Hobbit” movies, but this project puts him fully in charge, with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens returning as writers and producers. Serkis told Variety the reunion felt like a family affair, pointing to crew members he has worked alongside for 25 years and their children now joining the production.
The story draws from material in Tolkien’s appendices rather than the main novels, following Aragorn’s mission to capture Gollum before the creature can reveal the location of the One Ring to Sauron. Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood return as Gandalf and Frodo, while Jamie Dornan takes over the role of Aragorn from Viggo Mortensen. Kate Winslet joins the cast as a character named Marigol, with Anya Taylor-Joy playing an elf and Leo Woodall rounding out the new additions.
Serkis has spoken about how far motion-capture technology has advanced since his last outing as Gollum, crediting innovations from the “Planet of the Apes” films and James Cameron’s “Avatar” productions for freeing performers from enclosed capture volumes and allowing more nuanced facial work on location.
“The Hunt for Gollum” is scheduled to open in theaters December 17, 2027.
