The Hunt For Gollum All But Confirms A Precious Backstory
Kate Winslet’s mystery character could be the key to a new corner of Middle-earth.
Shadows from the past have loomed large over Hollywood productions for some time now, most delivering a pressing need for more prequels and spinoffs from franchises that have little else to give. It’s fitting, then, that the latest attempt to wring something new from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga is borrowing so heavily from, well, “The Shadow of the Past.” A brief chapter in Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, “The Shadow of the Past,” offers some insight into the finding of the Ring of Power, and its influence over the Hobbit-turned-wraith Gollum. That part of Gollum’s story feels more like a footnote designed to advance the plot and explain how the Ring passed from his hands into those of Bilbo Baggins and, eventually, Frodo Baggins — but for The Hunt for Gollum, it’s the key to unlocking a new corner of the franchise.
Andy Serkis, who’s played Gollum on-and-off for the past two decades, is returning to Middle-earth as both actor and director. He’ll helm The Hunt for Gollum, a midquel set between the Hobbit trilogy and the original Lord of the Rings films, alongside a cast of new and old characters. Updates about the film remain scarce, but at this year’s Cinemacon, Warner Bros. set the record straight on who, exactly, will play a part in the titular hunt. Some confirmations were already a sure thing, like the return of Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey and Elijah Wood as Frodo. Others — like the return of The Hobbit alum Lee Pace, or the casting of Jamie Dornan (not Leo Woodall) as a younger Aragorn — were pleasant surprises.
But what of Kate Winslet, who was cast in a mystery role earlier this year? She’s playing Marigol, a character who sounds brand new, but might actually confirm a key part of Gollum’s plot.
“Marigold” is a common name within the LOTR universe, especially for Hobbits. In Tolkien’s books, Samwise Gamgee has a sister named Marigold. We also meet another Marigold in Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings prequel series, The Rings of Power. Tellingly, though, Winslet has nothing to do with either of these characters: there’s no one in Tolkien’s world named Marigol. Not that we know of, anyway — but that doesn’t make her a new character, either.
When Winslet was cast in The Hunt for Gollum, insiders suggested she would be playing one of two roles: either Gilraen the Fair, mother of Aragorn, or Gollum’s grandmother.
WB’s casting announcement ruled out the former, but the latter is still very much on the table. Gollum mentions his grandmother briefly in Fellowship, but never by name. Given that he was a Hobbit named Smeagol before becoming something unrecognizable, it’d make perfect sense that she’d have a very Hobbit-y name, like Marigol. From what little we know of her, she’s also a powerful figure, the elder of her own Hobbit community and the steward of Elven (and thus less corrupting) Rings of Power.
Gandalf’s search for Gollum will be interspersed with some Hobbit-centric backstory.
But what exactly does this mean for The Hunt for Gollum? It’s safe to assume that the film will flesh out “Shadow of the Past” (which gives us nearly everything we know about Smeagol’s grandma), and even some parts of The Hobbit, to give us a full portrait of Smeagol’s life pre-Ring. But don’t expect Winslet to play too huge a role in the film. The Hunt will also be just what it says on the tin, following Gandalf, Aragorn (who in this era is called “Strider”), and the Wood Elves’ quest to find Gollum before the servants of the dark lord Sauron can.
With very little unexplored territory to go off of, the film will jump back and forth from past to present, detailing Smeagol’s origins and — thanks to Marigol’s Elven Rings — maybe even delivering a feature-length remix of the history we get in The Rings of Power. (Warner’s LOTR films are set in a completely different universe from the Amazon series, so we could very well see how a different creative team handles similar material.) There’s still a lot we don’t know about this story, but Winslet’s casting has made the picture just that much clearer.
