Embracer saying they want to ‘exploit The Lord of the Rings’ as much as they can sends a really bad signal to Tolkien fans

By some twist of fate, Embracer Group came to acquire the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books, which means that, barring the Amazon television show, this is now the company calling the shots on the future of Middle-earth adaptations across art mediums.

The conglomerate isn’t doing particularly well these days, and indeed, there have even been massive layoffs to accommodate this period of transition, though “transition” would be too soft a word for projects and ventures that get shut down overnight.

Now, during a recent investor call, an exec from Embracer pretty much admitted (per Eurogamer) that The Lord of the Rings might be the last ace up the company’s sleeves, so they’re going to “exploit” it as they see fit.

“We own Lord of the Rings, and we know we need to be exploiting Lord of the Rings in a very significant fashion and turning that into one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world,” said Matthew Karch. “And that’s obviously something we’re going to be doing. That’s a much better use of resources than some of the other projects that some of our teams have been working on. Working together we have those opportunities and we’re super excited to see that working relatively quickly.”

When it comes to classic works of art like The Lord of the Rings, there’s always a certain degree of natural distrust after a company licenses an adaptation. We all know that the end is always commercial, so that isn’t necessarily the thing putting most people off. What fans want to know is that the material is in safe hands, that the people calling the shots are as passionate about the world as they are. Embracer saying outright that they want to “exploit” The Lord of the Rings sets a terrible precedent, and it certainly won’t sit well with the majority of Middle-earth enthusiasts.

There will come a time when Embracer truly decides to capitalize on the popularity of this IP, but if that’s the way they’re going to approach it, then they may very well find — at the end of that road — a community utterly unwilling to participate in or even acknowledge their offerings.