'Multiple' Lord of the Rings Movies Are Now in Development
Get ready to return to Middle-earth -- again and again.
The second season of Rings of Power began shooting in October, but that's just the beginning of the high-budget Lord of the Rings content coming our way. Warner Bros. is developing "multiple" films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobit and Lord of the Rings books, according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
The studio behind Peter Jackson's original trilogy, New Line Cinema, will develop the new flicks. Zaslav made the reveal during an earnings call on Thursday. Embracer Group, the Swedish gaming company that bought Lord of the Rings IP last year for an undisclosed sum, followed up with a press release confirming the news.
"Following our recent acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, we're thrilled to embark on this new collaborative journey with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, bringing the incomparable world of J.R.R. Tolkien back to the big screen in new and exciting ways," said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Embracer subsidiary Freemode.
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies was "a landmark series of films that have been embraced by generations of fans," Warner Bros. Pictures Group Co-Chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement. "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."
Lord of the Rings made its big return last year with Rings of Power, an Amazon-produced TV series set 1,000 years before Frodo's journey to Mordor. It's become Amazon Prime's most viewed series ever, with over 100 million viewers globally, and holds an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Other than Rings of Power's second season, Lord of the Rings fanatics also have The War of Rohirrim, an anime flick taking place 183 years before the original film, to look forward to. It hits theaters next April.