Andy Serkis
is returning to The Lord of the Rings
franchise as the director of The Hunt for Gollum, but during a recent appearance at C2E2 2025, the actor took everyone back almost 25 years when he made his first on-set appearance in the now infamous motion capture suit that helped him bring Gollum to life.
As per Popverse, Serkis shared his memories of turning up on set more than four months into filming, and became an instant curiosity to the crew, who didn’t quite know what to make of “this guy with a shaved head in this very thin suit going, ‘[Gollum noise].’” He said:
“These guys had been filming for about 4 or 5 months before I got out to New Zealand. I was going through the preparations for becoming Gollum, and I was often on my own and crawling about, and kind of practicing, and doing what I was doing. And then the day came.
“Film is all shot out of order, and my first scene was scene 765 of film 3, and I remember crawling onto the set, and sort of becoming Gollum with my [thin] lycra suit on, and then getting into character. And then Pete Jackson laughing at me. All the crew were kind of going, ‘Who is that guy and what the hell is he doing here? Can you get him out of shot because we want to shoot here.’ I don’t think anybody really knew what I was doing there on the very first day.
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“We then shot the scene and that was a very beautiful thing, but it was months of sort of preparation and then standing there. And it did make me laugh when I could see Peter standing in front of me giggling like a child, because here was this character Gollum coming to life, but all it was, was this guy with a shaved head in this very thin suit going, ‘[Gollum noise].’”
Andy Serkis’ Return to Middle Earth Seems in Good Hands
More than a decade since Peter Jackson brought Middle Earth back to the big screen with The Hobbit trilogy, and almost a quarter of a century since The Lord of the Rings became a benchmark for what was achievable on film, The Hunt for Gollum is a movie no one expected to be heading to cinemas in the coming years.
While Serkis is getting behind the camera, and growling his way through the role of Gollum/Smeagol again, Peter Jackson will still be on board as executive producer, and many of the original team will be returning behind the scenes, including writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The question on everyone’s lips is whether any other members of the original cast will be back to reprise their roles in the movie, as it seems impossible to think of anyone else taking on roles such as Gandalf and Aragorn.
For now, there has been no casting news revealed, but many original stars have made it clear that if it is possible to return to Middle Earth, then they would not need to be asked twice. No doubt all will be revealed soon enough, but with the film not expected to now arrive until 2027, soon enough could still be a little while.
Source: Popverse
