Breaking: Warner Bros. Might Be Remaking ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Movies

New Lord of the Rings movies are coming and we have a whole lot of questions. Should we expect remakes or something new?

The Lord of the Rings is a powerful and well-loved franchise. It’s one of the most popular book series of all time. The movie trilogy adapting the main books remains adored and critically acclaimed. Even less well-received parts of the franchise, like the Hobbit trilogy and the Rings of Power, are a part of popular culture and major money-makers. It’s no surprise that a studio would be constantly trying to come up with new ways to mine the franchise. Now it seems that Warner Brothers-Discover and New Line Cinema have signed a deal to make some more movies.

A New Deal

As reported by Variety, Warner Bros. has signed a deal to produce multiple new Lord of the Rings movies. The deal was announced on Thursday by David Zaslav in a call. The movies will be done under the New Line Cinema banner. So far, no one is attached to them. However, it does seem like the studio is serious about making a big investment in new films. With the collapse of the Wizarding World film franchise, it makes sense that Warner would be looking for something else to take over as their major fantasy movie money maker.

Is This Going to Be a Remake?

via New Line

The Lord of the Rings movies are iconic classics. Still, the possibility remains that New Line will remake them. We don’t know what these several movies are, but we do know they are based on the books. Warner Bros. has put out pretty limited information. According to one person involved in the deal,

“…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,”. 

Another stated:

‘The Lord of the Rings’ on the big screen … 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.”

To me, both of these sound like they are maybe looking at new projects rather than remakes. On the other hand, remaking the core trilogy is the surest way to make money. Anything else is pretty risky.

War of The Lord of Rings

via Amazon

All of this is somewhat complicated by Amazon’s The Rings of Power. We don’t know how long Rings of Power will be around, or what could follow it. We also don’t know any timeline for Warner Bros.’s new movies. However, it’s a real possibility that both Amazon and Warner Bros. could put out competing Lord of the Rings products at the same time–Amazon releasing a show while Warner puts out a movie. This would put them into direct competition.

via New Line Cinema

It also seems like it might push Warner towards a remake of Lord of the Rings. If Warner tries to do anything from the early history of Middle Earth it will overlap with Rings of Power. Any attempt to tell a brand new story in Middle Earth, or adapt anything obscure, will be compared to Rings. It’s an interesting situation and we’ll just have to wait and see if Warner Bros. has struck gold with the deal, or if they’ve dug too greedily and too deep.

Let us know if you’re excited about more movies down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.