During the same financial call that the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery lead David Zaslav revealed that Mortal Kombat 12 is coming this year, he also mentioned The Lord of the Rings. Film rights to adapt JRR Tolkien’s stories were part of the Embracer Group’s spending spree last year, and the co-chairmen and CEOs of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, have struck a deal with Embracer to make “several Lord of the Rings movies,” Zaslav said. “The Lord of the Rings is one of the most iconic storytelling franchises of all time, and we are very excited.”
A press release from the Embracer Group (opens in new tab) goes further without really adding any more real details, except to clarify that this is a “multi-year agreement to collaborate on feature films based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit”.
“Twenty years ago, New Line took an unprecedented leap of faith to bring the incredible stories, characters and world of The Lord of the Rings to the big screen,” De Luca and Abdy were quoted as saying. “The result was a historic series of films that have been embraced by generations of fans. But for all the scope and detail carefully packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex, and dazzling universe dreamed up by JRR Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film.”
These films and this deal are unrelated to The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, an anime prequel that was announced shortly before Embracer acquired the Middle-earth film rights. This is still due out in April 2024 and is part of the same canon as the Peter Jackson films, with one of his co-writers, Philippa Boyens, a consultant. Mirando Otto is also reprising her role as Éowyn. She will narrate the story, which takes place almost 200 years before The Lord of the Rings.
Boyens, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, the creative team behind New Line’s previous Lord of the Rings films, told Variety (opens in new tab) that Warner Bros. and Embracer “kept us informed every step of the way” and that “we look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the future of the franchise”.
Two decades after The Return of the King won 11 Oscars, Middle-earth seems to be everywhere again. We had Amazon’s Rings of Power series, although unfortunately Amazon’s planned MMO was cancelled. Still, there are five Lord of the Rings video games released in the next two years, including Return to Moria and Gollum. Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings crossover set is also planned for this year, and will be the first of the Magic’s Universes Beyond sets to be brought over to its video game version, Arena.
That’s a lot of Lord of the Rings, and I can only imagine what movie tie-ins and other spin-offs are to come. After the third Hobbit movie I thought people were done with Middle-earth movies for a few decades, but what do I know?
Personally, one of my favorite parts of The Lord of the Rings is the Mines of Moria, where we see how the dwarves who returned to their ancestral home were punished, like their ancestors, for digging too greedily and too deeply. Just one thing that came to mind.