Gollum

Centuries earlier, Gollum was Sméagol, from a hobbit-like people who lived by a river. On his birthday, his cousin Déagol is dragged into the water by a fish and finds a gold ring on the riverbed.

Sméagol asks for it as a birthday present. Déagol says no, they fight, and Sméagol strangles his cousin. Cast out by his own people, he lives in hiding, coughing and choking, and gets a nickname from the noise he makes: Gollum. He ends up in the caves under the mountains, where the ring stretches his life far beyond normal.

Escaping Goblin-town, Bilbo Baggins tumbles into Gollum's caves and finds a ring the creature dropped. Gollum shows up, and the two play a game of riddles: if Bilbo wins, Gollum shows him the way out; if he loses, he's dinner.

Bilbo gives his name during the game and wins with a question that isn't a riddle: what has he got in his pocket? Gollum realizes he's lost his precious and goes for him. Bilbo slips on the ring, turns invisible, gets the chance to kill the creature and holds back out of pity. He jumps over him and escapes. Behind him, Gollum screams that he hates the Baggins forever.

Decades later, Gandalf tells Frodo what happened: Gollum left the cave to look for the ring, was caught by orcs and taken to Mordor. Under torture, he gave the enemy two words: "Shire" and "Baggins."

Once free, he follows the trail. In Moria, Gandalf notices Gollum has been tailing the Fellowship for three days. Frodo says it's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him. Gandalf answers that it was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand, and that Gollum may still have a part to play.

In the Emyn Muil, Gollum jumps Frodo and Sam at night and ends up tied with Sam's elven rope. Frodo pities him and makes him swear on the precious to take them to Mordor. He leads the hobbits through the Dead Marshes to the Black Gate and, seeing there's no way in, offers another route.

Treated kindly by Frodo, Sméagol comes back and, in an argument with himself, sends Gollum away. It doesn't last. At the Forbidden Pool, Frodo lures Sméagol out so Faramir's men can take him alive. The soldiers beat him, and he feels betrayed. Gollum returns, and the movie's last scene lays out his plan: lead the hobbits to "her" and take the ring.

On the stairs of Cirith Ungol, Gollum throws away the last of the lembas and sprinkles crumbs on Sam's clothes while he sleeps. Frodo falls for it and sends Sam away.

Gollum leads Frodo into Shelob's lair and disappears. The spider stings the hobbit. Sam comes back and fights her off, but Gollum's plan has already half worked.

Gollum follows Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom and attacks them on the way up. Inside, Frodo refuses to destroy the ring and puts it on. Gollum wrestles the invisible hobbit, bites off his finger and celebrates with the precious in his hands.

In the struggle that follows, both go over the edge. Gollum drops into the lava clutching the ring, and the two are gone together. Without meaning to, he finishes the quest.

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum opens December 17, 2027. Andy Serkis directs and plays Gollum again. The story is set between the two trilogies and follows the hunt for the creature. Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) are confirmed, and Jamie Dornan plays Aragorn while he's still living as Strider. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing.

In the first edition of The Hobbit, from 1937, Gollum bet the ring on the riddle game and played fair with Bilbo. Tolkien rewrote the scene in 1951 to fit The Lord of the Rings, and the Gollum everyone knows comes from that second version.