Stephen Colbert is officially heading to Middle-earth. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema announced Wednesday that the outgoing late-night host is co-writing a brand new cinematic installment titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. The creative pivot comes just months after CBS canceled The Late Show in July 2025 following Colbert’s on-air criticism of parent company Paramount’s $16 million legal settlement with Donald Trump. With his late-night tenure concluding on May 21, Colbert is pivoting to the blockbuster fantasy franchise full-time.
The 33-year-old CBS program was shuttered under the guise of financial restructuring. Observers across the entertainment industry quickly noted the timing of the ax falling mere days after Colbert blasted the $16 million Paramount settlement as a “big fat bribe.” Now free from his daily television commitments, Colbert is turning a pitch he made to filmmaker Peter Jackson two years ago into a reality. He is co-writing the screenplay alongside his son Peter McGee and original franchise architect Philippa Boyens.
Jackson released a video confirming the project Wednesday. He is producing alongside Fran Walsh and Boyens through WingNut Films in association with Colbert’s Spartina Industries. Shadow of the Past is set 14 years after the departure of Frodo Baggins. The narrative follows Sam, Merry, and Pippin as they retrace the beginning of their original journey. Sam’s daughter Elanor simultaneously uncovers a long-buried secret revealing why the War of the Ring was nearly lost before it even began.
The script adapts early chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring that Jackson entirely excluded from his 2001 film adaptation. Chapters three through eight feature heavily in Colbert’s vision for the new movie. Shadow of the Past is the second new Middle-earth project on the current Warner Bros. slate. It follows Andy Serkis’s The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is actively gearing up for a December 2027 theatrical release.