Peter Jackson blew any preconceived notions that The Lord of the Rings was unfilmable so far out of the water that they hit the stratosphere 20 years ago when The Fellowship of the Ring was released, but Hollywood hasn’t capitalized on the J.R.R. Tolkien mythology in the way a lot of people thought it would, given the industry’s rampant desire for high profile and marketable IP.
That being said, Middle-earth is coming back in a big way, with Amazon striking a billion-dollar deal for five seasons of television based on The Lord of the Rings, with the first batch of episodes far and away the most expensive small screen project in history. On top of that, Warner Bros. recently announced animated prequel The War of the Rohirrim, and you can guarantee it’s not being eyed as a one-and-done effort.
In fact, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Hayden Christensen would be returning for Disney Plus’ Obi-Wan Kenobi long before he was confirmed – that Amazon have reportedly sat up and taken notice of WB’s power move, and are planning to launch a Lord of the Rings animated series in addition to the live-action show.
The ownership issues surrounding the various aspects of the Tolkien mythology are complicated to say the least, but Amazon have the television rights to certain millennia, while Warner Bros. control the feature film side of things and the majority of the most well-known characters. It could one day result in oversaturation, but for the time being, Lord of the Rings fans will be thrilled if everything pans out and they end up with a slew of film, television, live-action and animated content to tide them over for the foreseeable future.
