Frodo's Back! Set Photos From The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Offer Behind-the-Scenes Look at Prequel Movie

Warner Bros. has released set photos from The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum to celebrate Hobbit Day, revealing a first look at Frodo and the Shire. The prequel movie, currently filming in New Zealand with a release date of December 17, 2027, sees Elijah Wood reprise his iconic role as Frodo Baggins. This peek at the character, released on Warner Bros.' TikTok page, doesn’t tell us much other than Frodo looks a lot like Frodo should. Unfortunately, as we’re only seeing Frodo’s back, we can’t see Wood’s face in character. The article suspects that this is because de-aging technology will be applied later on, so showing the character in full now wouldn’t accurately represent what fans will see in theaters. However, the photos do show plenty of Hobbits in the Shire, as well as director and Gollum actor Andy Serkis working a camera.

The film will reunite Serkis with his fellow Lord of the Rings co-stars Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Elijah Wood as Frodo, alongside Lee Pace reprising his role as elven king Thranduil. New additions to the cast include Jamie Dornan, who takes over from Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, and Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays a new "lethal elf" named Seren. Serkis previously discussed The Hunt for Gollum's use of AI to digitally de-age some of The Lord of the Rings' aging stars.

The movie revolves around various characters tracking down Gollum in order to discover the location of the One Ring. This time period is briefly shown during Fellowship's prologue, and covered briefly in Tolkien's original writings. Peter Jackson previously stated regarding Serkis taking the helm: "I'm there to help if I can help, if I can be of assistance at certain times, I'm there. But I'm giving him as much freedom as I can, because giving Andy freedom to make that movie will result in the best possible film."