Anya Taylor-Joy is stepping into Middle-earth with a brand-new elf role, adding an original spark to The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. For over two decades, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films have defined the big-screen version of Tolkien’s world, and now that universe is expanding again with a story centered on the dangerous search for Gollum.

Into that familiar landscape of Rangers, wizards, and ancient kingdoms a fresh Elven presence is arriving in a role made specifically for the film.

Anya Taylor-Joy has officially joined The Hunt for Gollum as Seren, a Sindarin Elf from the Woodland Realm who was created for the film rather than lifted from Tolkien’s books. Reports describe Seren as a trusted and lethal agent of King Thranduil, the Elven ruler played by Lee Pace in The Hobbit films and returning under Andy Serkis’ direction. 

Because Seren is an original character, the filmmakers have room to shape her role within the gap between Bilbo’s birthday party and the Fellowship’s journey into Moria. The story follows Aragorn and Gandalf as they hunt Gollum before he can reveal too much about the One Ring, which gives Seren a natural place in a world already full of pursuit, secrecy, and danger. 

The cast around her is just as loaded with familiar names. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Lee Pace, Kate Winslet, and Leo Woodall are all part of the ensemble, which suggests this won’t be a small side tale but a major Middle-earth return. With a mix of legacy characters and an original elf, The Hunt for Gollum is positioned to widen the mythology without simply repeating what came before.

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And this hunt is not the only Middle-earth expansion happening on screen.

Stephen Colbert is also stepping into Tolkien territory, but from the writer’s side. Following the end of The Late Show, the longtime Middle-earth fan is co-writing a new Lord of the Rings film, working under the title Shadow of the Past. He is developing it with his son, Peter McGee, and Lord of the Rings veteran Philippa Boyens.

Rather than inventing a fresh corner of the world from scratch, Colbert is focusing on material that readers know, but the films largely compressed. His project is expected to adapt chapters three through eight of The Fellowship of the Ring, the early stretch of Frodo’s journey that never received this level of screen treatment. Colbert has said those chapters contain a complete adventure of their own, just waiting to be opened up.

The story is framed years after the War of the Ring, with Sam, Merry, and Pippin retracing their first steps out of the Shire while Elanor uncovers a buried secret about how close the quest came to failure. Colbert has said he wants the film to remain faithful both to Tolkien’s writing and to Peter Jackson’s existing canon, making it feel like a bridge rather than a retcon. That puts Shadow of the Past in a different lane from The Hunt for Gollum, but both projects point to a bigger Middle-earth on the horizon.

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What do you think about Middle-earth expanding with both a new elf in The Hunt for Gollum and Colbert’s Shadow of the Past? Let us know in the comments.