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The first of the two, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, is set at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf and Aragorn search for Gollum to prevent the enemy from finding him. That was already receiving backlash. However, Stephen Colbert’s movie, The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, has been met with even more anger, with many saying it will ‘ruin’ the original trilogy. Yet, one line from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King suggests this movie will actually make perfect sense.
Shadow Of The Past Will (Partly) Be Sam’s Story
Although details about Shadow of the Past are fairly sparse at present, there are certain aspects of the story that have been confirmed. For one, the story will be set approximately 14 years after The Return of the King and will center on Sam, Merry, Pippin, and Sam’s daughter and their life in the Shire. That in particular has led to frustrations from audiences who argue that this would undermine the conclusion of The Return of the King. The story will not solely comprise that story, though.
The movie will reportedly also pull from chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring that didn’t appear in Peter Jackson’s movies. Presumably, this means that the main story will be set 14 years after The Return of the King, with flashbacks to the chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring that include stories like the hobbits’ harrowing experience with the Barrow-wights in chapter 8, “Fog on the Barrow-downs.” In both cases, it seems the story will really be focused on Sam, both during and after the events of the original trilogy, and therein lies the justification for this movie.
Frodo’s Return Of The King Line Set Up Such A Story
The Return of the King’s ending, although beautiful, is crushing. Frodo returned to the Shire alongside his fellow hobbits after his mission to destroy the One Ring was complete, but he was (understandably) never the same. He carried the pain and trauma of all that he had endured, and he was never able to truly settle back into life in the Shire. For that reason, Frodo decides to leave Middle-earth with Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins at the end of the movie and head to the Undying Lands. This provided him peace, but it also meant leaving the other hobbits.
Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo were all close, but Frodo and Sam had a particularly special bond, especially after Sam was so instrumental in Frodo destroying the One Ring and surviving the ordeal. When Frodo reveals that he is leaving, Sam is visibly gutted, and it’s one of the most painful moments in the whole trilogy. However, Frodo leaves him with the book that both he and Bilbo have now written, and he tells Sam, “The last pages are for you, Sam.” In that sense, Frodo directly indicated that the story would continue, but it was Sam’s story now.
This actually fits perfectly with Shadow of the Past, which will show what Sam’s life looks like more than a decade after Frodo’s departure. While it will no doubt still ruffle feathers for Shadow of the Past to provide a sequel story to The Return of the King, which even Tolkien decided not to do, the truth is, this is a story that was already perfectly set up by The Return of the King. What’s more, it’s clear that Colbert and his co-writers are being careful to not alter the original movies with this new installment.
