Los Angeles, California - Ten years after the last Lord of the Rings film, the big return of the popular fantasy franchise has now been revealed. But it gets even better, as actor Andy Serkis will return to Middle-earth as Gollum in a new film!

As Warner Bros. announced on Thursday, the first of two newly-announced films has the working title The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and, as the name suggests, will focus on Andy Serkis' iconic character.

Director of the original trilogy Peter Jackson and writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will also return as producers.

They "will be involved every step of the way", Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav told Variety.

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"As lifelong fans of Professor Tolkien's vast mythology, we are proud to be working... on another epic adventure," the trio of producers said.

"Yesssss, Precious," Serkis said. "The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends."

"It’s just all too delicious," he added cheekily.

The project is currently in the early stages of script development and will "explore storylines yet to be told," Zaslav said.

Although the film is still in its early stages, a release date has already been set – the first new live-action journey through Middle-earth is set to hit the big screen before the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, the animated film The War of the Rohirrim awaits us at the end of this year.

The second season of the TV series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is also set to be released on Amazon Prime Video this year.

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The original trilogy grossed almost 3 billion dollars worldwide with Jackson's subsequent trilogy based on Tolkien's The Hobbit achieving similar results.

The first Lord of the Rings trilogy starred Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, and Cate Blanchett. The movies were nominated for 30 Oscars, winning a total of 17.