Warner Bros. Discovery is getting back in the Ring business. Yesterday, during the company’s investor call, we found out that they struck a deal to make more films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery and the Embracer Group—the Swedish organization that bought the rights to produce films as well as games, merchandise, live productions, and theme park attractions based on Tolkien’s original work last year—have a multi-year contract in place.
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The news of these new potential LOTR features suggests that Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to relive the profitably of Peter Jackson’s trilogy from the early 2000s. Whether Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh will be involved in these new films remains to be seen, but he told THR that “Warner Bros. and Embracer have kept us in the loop every step of the way,” and that they “look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”
This deal has nothing to do with Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power television show. That project, done under a separate studio, is only allowed to use Tolkien’s appendix and focuses on The Second Age, which takes place thousands of years before Bilbo, Frodo, and co. were alive. And while the deal at Warner Bros. Discovery is for the same source material as their previous films, they are stating that any upcoming features won’t be a reboot of what came before.
“Twenty years ago, New Line took an unprecedented leap of faith to realize the incredible stories, characters and world of The Lord of the Rings on the big screen. The result was a landmark series of films that have been embraced by generations of fans,” Warner Bros. film leads Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy said in a statement to THR. “But for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film. The opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor, and we are excited to partner with Middle-earth Enterprises and Embracer on this adventure.”
Does that mean we’ll see a movie about Aragon and Arwen falling in love or, perhaps, a film focused solely on happenings in Lothlórien? How about a cozy mystery led by Rosie Cotton and Samwise Gamgee? Let the speculation begin.
