Stephen Colbert Suffers Another MAGA Blow: His ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie Is Shelved (Report)

Stephen Colbert‘s dream trip to Middle-earth may have just hit a wall. According to an exclusive report from Knight Edge Media, Skydance, the new company formed by the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, is hitting “pause” on The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, the movie Colbert has been writing.

The news comes just months after a big celebration. Back in March 2026, it was announced that Colbert would co-write the new Lord of the Rings film with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and Philippa Boyens, one of the writers of Peter Jackson’s original trilogy (via Deadline).

Colbert announced it in a video with Jackson himself, joking that he would be free starting that summer after The Late Show ended. Now, with the David Ellison-led Skydance in charge, the project’s future is uncertain. For Colbert, it is another setback from the same company that ended his late-night run.

Why Skydance Is Potentially Pausing Stephen Colbert’s Lord of the Rings

Stephen Colbert in a still from The Late Show | Credits: CBS

The biggest reason behind Stephen Colbert’s endeavor hitting a bump is the merger itself. Now that Warner Bros. has officially joined Paramount under the Skydance banner, the studio’s leadership has changed a lot. The current WB movie heads, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, are no longer with the company.

The duo were the executives who brought Peter Jackson’s team back for new Lord of the Rings films in 2023, so their exit leaves the franchise without its biggest supporters.

Then there is Colbert’s rocky history with the company. CBS, now a Skydance company, announced the end of The Late Show in 2025, just days after Colbert criticized Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump. CBS called it a financial decision, but many saw politics behind it.

Money is another worry. The new studio may no longer see Lord of the Rings as the sure-fire hit it used to be, especially after The War of the Rohirrim‘s theatrical performance. Skydance may want to see how The Hunt for Gollum performs before approving anything else.

The good news is that the movie isn’t fully canceled. Colbert can still work on drafts, but filming isn’t expected anytime soon.

What Was Stephen Colbert’s Lord of the Rings Movie About?

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past was set to explore a part of Tolkien’s story that fans never got to see on the big screen. When Peter Jackson made The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, he skipped six early chapters from the book.

Colbert shared that those were the chapters he kept reading over and over, and that’s exactly what his movie would cover. He shared, “But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in the Fellowship that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day.”

According to Deadline, the story takes place 14 years after Frodo leaves Middle-earth. Sam, Merry, and Pippin look back on the very first steps of the hobbits’ journey, which turns much of the movie into a flashback.

That means fans would finally see the Old Forest, the spooky Barrow-downs, and the cheerful, mysterious Tom Bombadil, one of the most famous characters missing from Jackson’s films. The working title itself, Shadow of the Past, comes from a chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring.

For now, fans will have to wait and hope this journey isn’t over for good. Are you disappointed with this particular report? Let us know in the comments below!