Not everyone can be considered a walking encyclopedia for all things Middle-earth, so for those wondering exactly how a Gollum movie would play out, allow us to toss out a quick spoiler alert: Gollum dies. The little stinker ultimately met his Doom (get it?) and inadvertently caused the Dark Lord Sauron’s own downfall during the fiery climax of “The Return of the King,” a poetic end to a character who spent literally hundreds of years tortured and consumed by his lust for the One Ring — you know, just in case anyone had any notions that this production would somehow be a sequel to the original trilogy.

So if not a direct continuation, what about an origin story? Well, “The Return of the King” has that part covered, too. If you remember, the threequel opens on a flashback laying out how the innocent, Hobbit-like creature once known as Sméagol was first corrupted by his discovery of the Ring, resorted to coldblooded murder, and eventually turned into the hideous-looking Gollum. Frankly, what could an entire origin movie accomplish that the ten-minute sequence we all watched twenty years ago didn’t already convey pretty darn effectively? And then there’s the fact that he returns in 2012’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” where we witness his first encounter with Bilbo Baggins that ultimately put him on Frodo’s trail decades later.

Simply put, the title “The Hunt for Gollum” can only be referring to one specific event: a brief period of time set during the events of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Desperate to recover the Ring he lost to Bilbo, Gollum is captured by Sauron’s forces and subject to torture. Upon release, he’s once again captured … this time, however, by some familiar faces.