At CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum has officially announced the film's cast. After months of rumors, it is confirmed that Ian McKellen is reprising his much-celebrated performance as Gandalf the Grey, opposite returning cast members Lee Pace as the Elvenking, Thrandruil and Elijah Wood reprising his role as the beloved Hobbit, Frodo Baggins. They will star alongside Andy Serkis, who is not only directing the project but also returning to play Gollum — and his alter ego, Sméagol.
Newcomers to the franchise include Jamie Dornan (Belfast, The Fall) stepping into the role of Strider, the chief of the Northern Dúnedain Rangers, who is leading the eponymous hunt for Gollum. Accompanying Strider on the dangerous hunt, will be another of the Dúnedain, Halvard, played by Leo Woodall (The White Lotus). The story will delve into Gollum’s past — back in a time when he was known as a young Stoorish lad called Sméagol. One of the key players in the settlement of Stoors — a Hobbit-like folk — is the matriarch Marigol, who will be played by Kate Winslet.
Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz
Which Lord of the Rings
Race Do You Belong To?
Hobbit · Elf · Dwarf · Man · Orc
Middle-earth is home to many peoples — the courageous, the ancient, the stubborn, the ambitious, and the wretched. Ten questions will determine which race truly claims your soul. The answer may surprise you. Or it may confirm what you already suspected.
🌿Hobbit
🌟Elf
⚒️Dwarf
⚔️Man
💀Orc
01
What does your ideal day look like? How we rest reveals as much as how we fight.
02
How do you feel about the passing of time? Our relationship with mortality shapes everything we value.
03
Danger is approaching. Your first instinct is to: Fight, flight, or something in between — it's more revealing than you'd think.
04
You stumble upon a great treasure. What do you feel? What we desire — and what we do about it — is the true test.
05
How important is community and belonging to you? No race of Middle-earth is truly alone — but some prefer it that way.
06
How ambitious are you, honestly? Ambition is neither virtue nor vice — it depends entirely on what you want.
07
Where do you feel most at home in the natural world? Middle-earth is vast — and every race has its place within it.
08
What kind of strength do you most respect? Every race defines strength differently — and they're all at least a little right.
09
What do you want to leave behind when you're gone? Legacy is the story we tell ourselves about why any of this matters.
10
Be honest — what do you actually want most out of life? The truest question always comes last.
Middle-earth Has Spoken You Belong To…
The race that claimed the most of your answers is your true kin. If two tied, both are shown — you walk between worlds.
◆ A TIE — YOU WALK BETWEEN TWO RACES ◆
🌿
Your Race
The Hobbits
You are, at your core, a creature of comfort, community, and quiet joy — and there is nothing small about that. Hobbits are proof that heroism does not require ambition, that the bravest heart can beat inside the most unassuming chest. You value good food, warm hearths, close friends, and a world that stays largely untroubled by dark lords and quests. When adventure does find you — and it will — you rise to it not because you sought it, but because the people you love needed you to. That is not ordinary. That is the rarest kind of courage in all of Middle-earth.
🌟
Your Race
The Elves
Ancient, graceful, and carrying a weight of memory most mortals cannot fathom, you are one of the Elves. You see the world in its fullness — its beauty, its impermanence, the unbearable ache of watching everything you love eventually fade. You pursue perfection not from pride, but because excellence is how you honour the time you have been given. Others may see you as remote or melancholy. They are not wrong, exactly. But they mistake depth for distance. You feel everything — which is precisely why you have learned to carry it so quietly.
⚒️
Your Race
The Dwarves
Stubborn, proud, fiercely loyal, and possessed of a work ethic that would exhaust most other races before breakfast — you are Dwarf-kind through and through. You do not ask for approval and you do not offer it cheaply. Your loyalty, once given, is given for life. Your grudges last longer. You love deeply and defend ferociously, and the things you build — with your hands, with your sweat, with generations of accumulated craft — are made to last. Not for glory. Because anything worth doing is worth doing properly, and you have never once done anything by half measures.
⚔️
Your Race
The Race of Men
Mortal, ambitious, flawed, and magnificent — you belong to the most complicated race in Middle-earth, and that complexity is your greatest strength. Men are capable of cowardice and extraordinary bravery, of cruelty and breathtaking sacrifice, sometimes within the same breath. You feel the urgency of your finite years, and it drives you. You want to matter. You want to leave something behind. You fall, and you rise, and the rising is what defines you. Tolkien called mortality the Gift of Men — not a curse, but a fire that burns bright precisely because it does not burn forever. That fire is you.
💀
Your Race
The Orcs
Brutal, survivalist, and contemptuous of anything that can't defend itself — you answered with the instincts of an Orc, and there is a certain savage honesty in that. You do not dress up your desires in polite language or pretend you want things you don't. You want power, survival, and to never be at the bottom of any hierarchy ever again. Orcs are not evil by nature — they were made from something that was once good, and broken into this shape by forces they did not choose. What remains is fierce, territorial, and deeply aware that the world is not kind. You've made your peace with that. The question is what you do with it.
There was also the shock revelation recently that noted nerd Stephen Colbert would be penning his own take on the story, with a film set in some of the missing chapters of Fellowship of the Ring. In a conversation with Collider's Steve Weintraub for his new film Animal Farm, Serkis was asked how long he had known that Colbert was going to be co-writing a Lord of the Rings script, and his answer made it sound like these developments had been on the cards for quite some time. "Obviously, being here in New Zealand, one gets to hear these things," Serkis told Collider. "So, I have known for a little while, yes. He’s a Tolkienista. He's a proper Tolkienista. He's been down here and won battles of knowledge wins with some of the filmmakers down here. So, he's beloved and respected as a Tolkien nerd."
Warner Bros. shared a quote from Serkis along with the cast reveal:
"Across two trilogies, a mark of a Middle-earth film, has always been the formidable array of talent brought to bear in every role. The Hunt for Gollum continues in that tradition, and I am delighted to announce the return of two of Middle-earth’s most beloved performers, alongside some exceptionally talented new additions to Tolkien’s world.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum arrives in theatres on December 17, 2027. Stay tuned at Collider for more updates from CinemaCon.
English (US) ·