- Stephen Colbert will co-write a new Lord of the Rings movie alongside his son Peter McGee and Oscar-winning screenwriter Philippa Boyens
- McGee has worked in production on notable projects including “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Netflix’s “Outer Banks,” and HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones”
- The film, titled “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past,” is set 14 years after Frodo sailed into the West and will bring previously unadapted chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring to the big screen for the first time
Warner Bros. just dropped one of the biggest surprises in Hollywood this year, and nobody saw it coming from this direction. Stephen Colbert, just two months away from ending his run on “The Late Show,” has landed a new role: co-writing a brand new Lord of the Rings film alongside his screenwriter son, Peter McGee. But while Colbert’s Tolkien obsession is well known, his son is the quiet professional who actually made this whole thing possible.
So Who Exactly Is Peter McGee?
Peter McGee is not some industry newcomer riding his father’s coattails. He has built his own career working in production across major film and TV projects, including “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Netflix’s “Outer Banks,” HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones,” and CBS’s “Blue Bloods.” He has put in real years of work in the industry, learning the craft from the ground up.
Outside of Hollywood, McGee is also the lead singer of a Brooklyn-based rock band called Evil Twin, which tells you something about the kind of creative energy he brings to his work.
How This Film Actually Came Together
The origin story of this project is genuinely fascinating. Colbert said he kept returning to six specific chapters of “The Fellowship of the Ring” that Peter Jackson never adapted for the original films, particularly chapters “Three Is Company” through “Fog on the Barrow-downs.” He felt those chapters had the bones of their own standalone story.
He started talking it over with his son Peter, and together they worked out what they believed could function as a framing device for that untold story. After sitting on the idea for years, Colbert finally built up the nerve to call Jackson directly. Two years of quiet development followed, and the rest became a Tolkien Reading Day announcement that broke the internet.
The film’s story will follow Sam, Merry and Pippin as they retrace their first steps of adventure, set 14 years after Frodo’s death. Notably, it will also introduce fan-favourite character Tom Bombadil, who was left out of the original trilogy entirely.
Why This Actually Matters
This is not a celebrity vanity project. Colbert and McGee have already been developing the screenplay with Philippa Boyens, the Oscar-winning writer who co-wrote the original Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, for two years. That level of collaboration with someone so central to the original films gives the project serious credibility.
Colbert’s connection to the franchise also runs deeper than most fans realise. He moderated a Hobbit panel at Comic-Con in full costume back in 2014, and has consistently cited Tolkien as one of his deepest passions. This is not someone who woke up one day and decided to write a blockbuster movie.
Colbert has said the CBS cancellation of “The Late Show” was, in a strange way, the green light he needed to fully commit to this project. Sometimes a door closing really does open a window, even if that window leads to Middle-earth.
What It Means
For fans of the franchise, the real story here is that this film is working with a framing device set after the events of the original trilogy, giving it room to honour both the books and the films simultaneously. The chapters being adapted are beloved by hardcore Tolkien readers precisely because they were never seen on screen. Having a lifelong fan and a credible screenwriter in the same family unit at the heart of this is, at minimum, a very promising starting point.
Peter McGee may be Stephen Colbert’s son, but he is also clearly a key reason this film exists at all.
