Andy Serkis says reviving Gollum has followed him into his sleep. The actor, who is also directing “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” described the effect in an interview with The Times published this week.
“It has been insane going back to the character I started playing 26 years ago,” Serkis said. He now wakes at night unsure whether he is asleep or awake, he added, and wonders if he is directing Gollum. The 62-year-old offered no sign that he expects relief. “I don’t suspect that Gollum will ever leave me, quite frankly,” he said.
The comments capture the unusual load Serkis carries on the film. He performs the creature in a motion-capture suit, as he has since “The Two Towers” in 2002, and he also runs the set. His earlier directing credits include “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” neither on the scale of a Middle-earth tentpole.
The production has moved past the planning stage. Warner Bros. and New Line marked the start of filming this year with a video that showed Serkis in the capture suit. Cinemas will get the film on Dec. 17, 2027, a year later than the 2026 date the studio first announced.
Co-writer and producer Philippa Boyens, who works alongside Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, described the story to Empire as intense, set after Bilbo’s birthday party and before the Mines of Moria. She also said she was struck by how fluidly Serkis still moves as the character. Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said when the project was announced that Serkis has “unfinished business” with Gollum. Casting news remains partial. Kate Winslet is reported to be in talks for a major role, though Warner Bros. has not confirmed the lineup. Elijah Wood has said he is not allowed to confirm whether Frodo returns.
Serkis has long acknowledged how close he came to passing on the part. In 2020 he recalled a fellow performer warning him against playing a digital character whose face would never appear on screen. The role later helped carry motion capture into the mainstream and fueled repeated calls for Oscar recognition of such performances, calls the Academy has not answered. Whether that history gives Serkis an edge as a first-time Tolkien director will become clear next year, when footage begins to circulate.
