News The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Kate Winslet to Star in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Production is set to start in New Zealand in May By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on March 11, 2026 Miya Mizuno/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Miya Mizuno/HBO Andy Serkis’ Lord of the Rings film is heading toward production in New Zealand later this year, and Kate Winslet will be moving there with him. According to Deadline, Winslet (Titanic, Mare of Easttown, pictured above in The Regime) will be “the female lead” (aka “one of the leads”) of the film. She’ll be joined on-screen by LOTR alums Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Serkis, who respectively played Frodo Baggins, Gandalf, and Gollum in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films. The Hunt for Gollum will reportedly take place between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. It will follow Aragorn (played in the Lord of the Rings films by Viggo Mortensen) as he and Gandalf seek to track down Gollum before the creature can let Sauron know where the One Ring to rule them all is hiding. (This description means that the events of the upcoming film actually happen during The Fellowship of the Ring, after Gandalf visits Bilbo for his birthday and sees that his old dear friend is not quite right. But I digress.) The Hunt for Gollum is in pre-production, and sees Serkis in the director’s chair. Production is set to begin in New Zealand in May, with shooting lasting until October. It’s also the first planned movie in a duology, which means that the hunt for Gollum will likely span more than a mere single film. We don’t have any details yet on who Winslet will be playing, much less whether the character will be human, hobbit, elf, or dwarf. We’ll find out when The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum comes out in theaters on December 17, 2027. [end-mark] The post Kate Winslet to Star in <i>The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum</i> appeared first on Reactor.