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, offering 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. While the set photos primarily show Frodo’s back, they also feature plenty of Hobbits in the shire, alongside director and Gollum actor Andy Serkis working a camera.

The film will reunite Serkis with fellow Lord of the Rings co-stars Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Elijah Wood as Frodo. The cast receives new additions, including Jamie Dornan taking over from Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, and Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays a new "lethal elf" named Seren.

Serkis previously discussed the movie's use of AI to digitally de-age some of the aging stars, noting that machine learning is part of the process. The plot 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 was covered in Tolkien’s original writings.