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By Thomas Westerholm
Life & Trends Reporter
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Fans were shocked to discover that Stephen Colbert will be co-writing the screenplay for a new Lord of the Rings movie for New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.—and they have questions.
The movie, which was announced by Colbert along with Peter Jackson on Instagram, will be based on chapters in J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels that were not depicted in the original trilogy released from 2001 to 2003.
Colbert's son will help co-write the script.
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The original trilogy skipped over a segment of The Fellowship of the Ring in which Tolkien introduced the character Tom Bombadil, as well as Frodo Baggins' adventures with Old Man Willow and the Barrow-wights.
In his announcement with Jackson, Colbert said his idea was to "make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies."
The movie's synopsis was also unveiled, per multiple sources.
Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.
Jackson is also producing The Hunt for Gollum, another story in the Lord of the Rings universe, directed by Andy Serkis and expected in late 2027.
While some commenters on Reddit were excited, many had questions.
"Has Colbert ever written anything aside from television sketches?" one user wondered. "Also, how in the world are they turning Fog on the Barrow-Downs into a feature-length film? We thought Hunt for Gollum was reaching for scraps..."
One commenter pointed out that Colbert is "arguably the #1 LotR superfan. Wonder if this is a good or bad idea. I don't know."
"Colbert is one of the biggest Tolkien nerds out there with the notoriety to be able to get stuff done," a third user pointed out. "I'd trust him more than most."
'Total cash grab'
However, some fans thought the idea sounded like a disaster.
"As a big fan of Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, and Stephen Colbert… this sounds like a bad idea," one individual posted. "It sounds like a semi-sequel to Return of the King, which is a bad idea.
"Tolkien even tried once and stopped because he couldn’t do it. This is a total cash grab."
Another user, meanwhile, noted that Colbert's fandom was no guarantee of success.
"Just because someone knows everything about another writer's work doesn't make them a writer. Or director, or anything even remotely related to making a film," the user wrote. "They've essentially given the reins over to a fanfiction guy; this will be hot garbage.
"Lay LotR's rotting corpse to rest already."
Newsweek has reached out to Colbert's representation for comment via email.
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