Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Adds Anya Taylor-Joy in New Role Not From Tolkien’s Books

The Lord of the Rings spinoff film The Hunt for Gollum has added another big-name actor. Anya Taylor-Joy (New Mutants, Queen’s Gambit) has been cast as “Seren,” a “Sindar Elf of Woodland Realm” who is “a trusted and lethal agent of King Thranduil.” It is an original character who never appeared in the writing of LOTR author J.R.R. Tolkien.

The casting will only increase Anya Taylor-Joy’s clout within fandom circles; she is already famous for playing X-Men fan-favorite Illyana Rasputin (aka Magik) in the spinoff film New Mutants; she is currently voicing the character of Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros. Movie franchise (whose sequel just earned another billion dollars at the box office), and now she will add Lord of the Rings to her belt in 2027, almost exactly a year after her full-fledged debut as the sister of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atriedes in Dune: Part Three.

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What Is The Hunt for Gollum & When Does It Take Place?

The Hunt for Gollum is one of several new Lord of the Rings spinoff films that seem to be going back and filling gaps in director Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films. In terms of timeline, the movie will be a sequel to The Hobbit trilogy, but a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy; it follows Gandalf, who recruits Aragorn to help him track down Gollum, to ascertain further whether the enchanted ring Bilbo Baggins stole from him during The Hobbit was actually the One Ring of Sauron.

In the book, Gandalf’s quest took him seventeen years between first sensing the ring’s evil nature during Bilbo’s 111th birthday, and when he returned to warn Frodo Baggins that Sauron had his eye on him. Jackson’s version of The Fellowship of the Ring makes that time-jump feel like days; The Hunt for Gollum will probably establish the middle ground by revealing that Gandalf’s investigation was a lot harder and more time-consuming than the movie made it seem.

Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis will reprise his role as Gollum, as well as direct the film. Elijah Wood will appear again as Frodo Baggins, Lee Pace reprises his The Hobbit trilogy role as Elven King Thranduil, with Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf. New cast members include 50 Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan (taking over the role of Aragorn from Viggo Mortensen), and White Lotus star Leo Woodhall Halvard, one of Aragorn’s “Rangers of the North,” a group of book characters who were cut from Jackson’s films. Kate Winslet will play “Marigol,” a new character who may be Gollum’s (or rather “Sméagol’s”) grandmother.

How Anya Taylor-Joy’s Role Fits Into Hunt for Gollum‘s Storyline

That’s the framework for an exciting Tolkien-brand adventure/quest, featuring some familiar characters and places. Elf King Thranduil rules over the Woodland Realm, and is the father of The Lord of the Rings hero, Legolas (Orlando Bloom). Durig The Hobbit trilogy, it became very clear that Thranduil is a complicated (but never aloof or heartless) ruler. That could make Seren an equally layered and complicated character, as the description of her being a “lethal agent” could be taken to mean some kind of Elven royal assassin who answers to Thranduil.

For those who know Tolkien lore, Gollum’s story just prior to The Fellowship of the Ring sees him captured by Aragorn in the Dead Marshes and brought to King Thranduil. The king kept Gollum imprisoned in the Mirkwood forest until Gollum snuck away during an Orc attack. Thranduil sends his son, Legolas, to Rivendell to inform Lord Elrond of Gollum’s escape, and Legolas ends up remaining there and joining forces with Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring. There’s a lot of room for a darker story about how close Thranduil may have come to having Gollum slain; one of the character’s most standout (and violent) moments in The Hobbit was beheading a captive Orc, just because it teased the return of Sauron. If Thranduil gets the idea that Gollum and/or the One Ring truly threaten the world, then the arc for Anya Taylor-Joy’s Seren suddenly becomes very clear.

No doubt, a lot of Lord of the Rings fans will also be hoping for a scene between Taylor-Joy’s Seren and Evangeline Lily’s royal captain Tauriel.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum has a release date of December 17, 2027.