(Photo : Dave Etheridge-Barnes/Getty Images)
"Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum" will be the next film in the Lord of the Rings series.
The "Lord of the Rings" universe is set to expand.
Warner Bros. said Thursday that it will release more films in its The Lord of the Rings franchise, the first of which is still in script development but is planned to be released in 2026.
It will focus on the character Gollum.
The studio says that the working title for the film is "Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum," and it will be directed by and star Andy Serkis in the title role.
"Yesssss, Precious," Serkis said according to Variety. "The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa.
Original "The Lord of the Rings" filmmaker Peter Jackson is producing the movie, Variety reported.
The sequels will "explore storylines yet to be told," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during an earnings call Thursday.
"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy of films are among the most successful and acclaimed of all time, winning seventeen Oscars including eleven for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," tying the record for a single film.
Warner Bros. re-teamed with Jackson for a trilogy of films based on "The Hobbit," a co-production with MGM. The six films earned nearly $6B worldwide at the box office.
