You've channeled your inner
Shadow of Mordor, stopped
War in the North, become one of the
Guardians of Middle-earth, and made
LEGO: The Lord of the Rings your playground, but now it's time to give one precious hobbit a chance to shine in his own video game. Yes, Daedalic Entertainment, the renowned creators of
Deponia and
Blackguards 2, just announced
The Lord of the Rings – Gollum.
Considering that the Daedalic team is best known for their story-driven action-adventure titles, it comes as no surprise that
Gollum will serve as a prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy (popularized by Peter Jackson's movie adaptations).
Gollum will try to fill in the gaps between Sméagol's discovery of the One Ring To Rule Them All's true power and him losing his humanity to finally become the woeful
Gollum.
"
You already have that big conflict in the character, two voices talking to you continuously, which means there is a good reason there are decisions to make in the game: the Sméagol decisions or the Gollum decision," CEO and Co-Founder of Daedalic Entertainment Carsten Fichtelmann said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "
We have the story that we all know from the book, but everything that happens to him before he appears in the book are the main things we will see in our game," Fichtelmann continued.
"We will tell the story before he first appears in the books."
Lord of the Rings – Gollum is the direct result of Daedalic's partnership with Middle-earth Enterprises that will publish Gollum's origin story in 2021 on PC and "
all relevant console platforms at that time."
“
Our goal was to present a storytelling experience. About four years ago, I caught Middle-earth Enterprises in Berkeley, maybe like Peter Jackson did 20 years ago, and I said we’re interested in licensing Lord of the Rings,” Fichtelmann further explained. "
After some negotiations, it was clear that the Tolkien estate looked for a company that was capable of doing something which is more story-orientated than some of the other products that came out over the last years."
While many fans would love to see Andy Serkis reprising his role in the upcoming video game, that probably won't happen, as Daedalic will try to avoid going "
too deep into the uncanny valley" by making a hyper-realistic title (although it will be powered by Unreal Engine 4). "
When it comes to shapes, colors, we definitely try to produce something that is a statement," Fichtelmann concluded.
According to the developers,
Gollum will be the first, but definitely not the last, Daedalic's game set in the J.R.R. Tolkien-created universe, as the studio and Middle-earth Enterprises are already thinking about their future projects. Considering that Amazon is currently working on
The Lord of the Rings TV series (with a huge $1bn budget),
Gollum's debut might be a small beginning of the
LOTR resurgence.