It sounds like Hunting for Gollum is still a while away, as Gandalf himself said the team behind the scenes are planning two films.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will be split into two films, according to Ian McKellen.

It looks like Warner Bros. is looking to continue its tradition of stretching out the long-running Lord of the Rings franchise with the next installment being The Hunt for Gollum – you may remember that The Hobbit was adapted into a trilogy, even though the books weren’t long enough to pull that off, but that’s OK, there’s money to be made. And, the Gollum-centric movie announced earlier this year will apparently be split into two parts, so there’s more money to be made. Gandalf himself, Ian McKellen, recently appeared on ITV’s This Morning and was asked if he’d be starring in the film.

The actor was recently asked if he would be returning after an accident while filming a play he was currently acting in forced him to take some time off from work to recuperate. “All I know is that they called me and said these movies are coming out, mainly about Gollum, and Andy Serkis, who plays Gollum, is going to direct, and the script will be released sometime in the new year, and then I will decide if I want to go back,” McKellen reiterated previous comments. He went on to say that he would love to come back, and when asked if it would only be one movie, he said “I heard it’s two movies.”

Obviously, this is still a work in progress, as the script won’t be in McKellen’s hands until next year, so things could change quickly. I’m also not quite sure how hunting Gollum would be a two-movie hook, but hey, who knows better than some executives who like to make money, right?