There and back again.

Gandalf is involved in “most” of Warner Bros.’ new The Lord of the Rings film ideas and may even return in the second incoming live action film after The Hunt for Gollum.

Lord of the Rings screenwriter Philippa Boyens told Empire that Gandalf could potentially return for both confirmed live action films. While the beloved wizard will definitely star in The Hunt for Gollum, likely with original actor Ian McKellen at the helm, nothing is locked in for the second film as of yet.

“We’re playing around with a number of ideas, but most of those ideas do include Gandalf,” Boyens said. “So Gandalf would potentially return for two live-action films.”

We’re playing around with a number of ideas, but most of those ideas do include Gandalf.

Warner Bros. announced The Hunt for Gollum alongside the mysterious second film in May, with Gollum actor Andy Serkis set to star and direct in the former.

The 85-year-old McKellen said he’d be open to returning as Gandalf so long as age didn’t catch up to him, and has revealed he’d been asked to return in the iconic role. Warner Bros. has previously said that characters from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies may return, and Aragorn actor Viggo Mortensen is also open to returning.

The Lord of the Rings Movies in (Chronological) Order

Warner Bros. began discussions for The Hunt for Gollum around October 2023, Serkis said. “They were saying, ‘Andy, we really want to reinvigorate Middle-earth. There are so many fresh stories that we want to get involved with. We want to launch this new wave by taking us back into the world of Gollum.”

Comments about reinvigorating Middle-earth are a tad more sentimental than the language used by those who own the Lord of the Rings franchise. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslaz said, for example, that The Lord of the Rings is a “largely underused” franchise that his company is “hard at work fixing.” And CEO of The Lord of the Rings owner Embracer Group Lars Wingefors, meanwhile, said the company needs to be “exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion” on the video game front.

Elsewhere in Tolkien’s world sits The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an animated film set to tell the story behind the fortress of Helm’s Deep and the mighty King of Rohan Helm Hammerhand when it premieres on December 13, 2024.