With his tenure on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert set to wrap up in May 2026, Stephen Colbert is already giving fans a glimpse at what comes next. It’s a passion project years in the making, and one that could be a hint toward the next chapter in Colbert's career.
The late-night host revealed that he’s developing a new Lord of the Rings film titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past, collaborating with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee. Legendary filmmaker Peter Jackson also helped the father-son duo work out the story, with screenwriter Philippa Boyens joining in to develop the script.
Colbert, a lifelong fan of J. R. R. Tolkien, explained that the story draws directly from material in The Fellowship of the Ring that didn’t make it into Jackson’s 2001 film adaptation. Specifically, he pointed to a stretch of early chapters as the inspiration.
“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” Colbert told Jackson in a video shared on social media by Warner Bros. “But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on … that ya’ll never developed into the first movie back in the day. And I thought, ‘Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story.’”
In honor of Tolkien Reading Day and the destruction of the One Ring, we bring you a special announcement. pic.twitter.com/ufh9RLBIxO
— Warner Bros. (@warnerbros) March 25, 2026
According to the official logline, Shadows of the Past takes place 14 years after Frodo’s passing from Middle-earth. Sam, Merry, and Pippin reunite to retrace the earliest steps of their original journey, while Sam’s daughter, Elanor, uncovers a secret that suggests the War of the Ring was nearly lost before it even began.
For longtime viewers of Colbert’s late-night work, this projet won’t come as a surprise. His encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkien lore has been a recurring feature across his career, from deep-dive interviews with Jackson and cast members to trivia challenges to on-air references that only the most devoted fans could fully appreciate.
Still, the development of Shadows of the Past signals something more than a side project. It may offer a preview of how Colbert plans to spend his post-Late Show years. His movie won't release until after Andy Serkis’ The Hunt for Gollum hits theaters in 2027, suggesting he'll have plenty of work to do once The Late Show ends.
While it’s hard to imagine him stepping away from performing entirely, this Lord of the Rings project shows he’s eager to explore storytelling in a new way. With the creative freedom that comes after decades at the top of late-night TV, Colbert appears ready to write the next chapter in his career. And he'll start it with the only thing he may know better than comedy.