Anya Taylor-Joy Lands Major Role in “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum”

Anya Taylor-Joy joins an already star-studded cast headed to Middle-earth.

Tayl0r-Joy is set to join Kate Winslet, Lee Pace, Jamie Dornan, Leo Woodall, and former Lord of the Rings stars Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Andy Serkis in the latter’s upcoming film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Taylor-Joy has been cast as the elf Seren in a film set between director Peter Jackson’s previous two trilogies, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The new film centers on Aragorn (Dornan) and Gandalf’s (McKellen) search for Gollum (Serkis), the former Hobbit who became a ring-obsessed cave-dweller after initially killing his cousin to take it, to learn more about the ring, forged generations earlier and capable of destroying all of Middle-earth.

Taylor-Joy’s elf Seren is a member of the Sindar Elf clan of the Woodland Realm, and a very capable and dangerous agent of King Thranduil (Pace).

The film is based on material from the Appendices of “The Lord of the Rings” and boasts Oscar winners Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, the trio who brought The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies to the big screen, as producers. The script is by Phoebe Gittins, Boyens, Arty Papageorgiou, and Fran Walsh. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have set a release date of December 17, 2027.

This is one of two major Lord of the Rings projects in the works. A second film, being written by Stephen Colbert, Boyens, and Peter McGee and is currently titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, is slated to debut after The Hunt for Gollum. 

“It is an honor and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that stinker — Gollum!” Jackson, Boyens, and Walsh said in a statement when the film was announced in May of 2024. “As lifelong fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with [WBD film chiefs] Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy, and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”

Featured image: Anya Taylor-Joy ahead of the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan on March 29, 2026. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto)