Summary
- Despite the failure of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the IP will thrive as long as fantasy remains popular.
- A Gollum-centric movie in the works could punctuate Daedalic's misstep, exploring familiar content with iconic characters.
- The oversaturation of Gollum in games and movies raises concerns about revisionism and potential redundancy in storytelling.
Enough has been said regarding how inadequate The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was and Daedalic’s internal studio being shut down is certainly unfortunate regardless. There isn’t much to redeem about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum but, while that game failed in nearly every aspect, the IP it’s a part of will continue to thrive as long as fantasy is a popular genre. Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game is seemingly on the right hairy foot, for instance, and it’ll be interesting to see what other games are in the works, if any, because there are many more stories still for The Lord of the Rings to tell.
This Gollum game’s deserved downfall would have presumably been the final time anyone sees a Gollum-centric Lord of the Rings story, at least not until The Lord of the Rings dried out of other content. Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power airing its second season trailer was a sad reminder of how Gollum missed the first season’s hype train by a handful of months, and yet a more startling announcement has been made concerning J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth epics. There is reportedly a Gollum-centric movie now being made, which effectively sticks a second Morgul blade in the heart of Daedalic’s Gollum.
Andy Serkis’ Gollum Movie Ensures Daedalic Can Never Live Down Its Botch Job
It seems ill-timed if nothing else that a movie titled The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is in the pipeline soon after the Gollum game was lambasted. No amount of publicity or relative iconography could’ve saved Gollum’s gameplay, to be clear, but there’s no telling how it would’ve been initially perceived if it was released around the same time as Andy Serkis’ upcoming Gollum movie and behaved like a licensed tie-in.
Moreover, since it’s apparently exploring Gollum around the time of the earlier movies, it’s likely to dive into familiar content that the Gollum game alluded to or explicitly featured, such as him maneuvering Mordor and the slave pits of Barad-dur. This story also involves Gandalf as Gollum recounts his recent experiences and would be a prime opportunity for Ian McKellen to once again assume the role among several other iconic characters who could feature.
However, it’d be a shame if the same narrative from the Gollum game is regurgitated for the sake of a live-action adaptation because it would double down on Daedalic’s blunder. Either way, it’s a lose-lose scenario for Daedalic.
An Oversaturation of Gollum is Evidence of How Insistent on Iconography The Lord of the Rings is
If this story wasn’t gripping enough to make for a thrilling game then it likely wouldn’t make an intriguing adaptation, either, but Gollum evidently persists as one of the IP’s most notable pieces of iconography. It’s terrific hearing that Serkis is attached to the movie in a massive capacity, especially with the actor’s seminal portrayal absent in Gollum.
Still, the movie shouldn’t be upheld by its star power alone. If there’s any chance that The Hunt for Gollum is intended to overwrite the Gollum game’s efforts it’ll be tremendously sad and seem like revisionism rather than an opportunity for another important Gollum story to be told.
Gollum is now butter scraped over too much bread at this point throughout games and movies, though—his traumatic backstory as Smeagol has been succinctly depicted in The Return of the King’s prologue, for example, meaning there’s a high likelihood that The Hunt for Gollum double-dips into Daedalic’s story.
This game and movie coming out side-by-side would’ve felt incredibly redundant and yet the movie being greenlit after Gollum’s misfire now appears tone-deaf, as if gameplay itself was the only part players had any gripes toward. When The Hunt for Gollum releases in theaters it’ll only ever be a constant reminder of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, so hopefully the movie fares better.
The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum
- Released
- May 25, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an action-adventure game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment and co-published with Nacon. The game, set in the fictional world of Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkien, takes place in between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
He's got nothing more to lose… How far will he go to retrieve his Precious?
Taking place in parallel to the events described in The Fellowship of the Ring ™, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an action-adventure game and an epic interactive experience. You play as the enigmatic Gollum on his perilous journey and find out how he outwitted the most powerful characters in Middle-earth.
Gollum is one of the most fascinating characters in The Lord of the Rings universe. In 500 years he has experienced events that would destroy the toughest of beings. But Gollum doesn't break; he bends, he adapts…
Tortured by his split personality, he can be vicious and wicked as Gollum, yet friendly and cautious as Smeagol. It's up to you to decide which of his personalities will triumph in the difficult moral choices that will dictate the future of your precarious alliances.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ is an official adaptation based on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Developer(s)
- Daedalic Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Daedalic Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
