With the original Lord of the Rings trilogy (and some of The Hobbit), Gollum took quite a bit of focus. He was one of the central characters surrounding the ring, right up to its destruction. So it only makes sense that he gets his own video game, right?
Today, the team at Daedalic Entertainment announced that it’s hard at work on Lord of the Rings: Gollum. This narrative-based adventure game is currently in development and not set to release until sometime in 2021. Still, for fans of the character, it’ll be worth the wait.
Instead of being based on the films, however, it’ll instead take its inspiration from the original books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Speaking with Hollywood Reporter, Carsten Fichtelmann, CEO and co-founder of Daedalic, explained its vision:
“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,” he said. “We will tell the story before he first appears in the books.”
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But he also noted what makes Gollum such a key choice for a narrative-based game:
“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 Smeagol decisions or the Gollum decision.”
Story will be everything with the game, Fichtelmann pointed out.
“Our goal was to present a storytelling experience,” he said. “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. After some negotiations, it was clear that the Tolkien estate looked for a company that was capable of doing something which is more story-oriented than some of the other products that came out over the last years.”
The game should coincide with the release of Amazon’s forthcoming Lord of the Rings series, which is currently in the midst of production. Fichtelmann noted that Gollum will release for PC as well as “all relevant console platforms at that time.”
What do you think about Gollum getting his own video game? Let us know in the comments below!
