WB/New Line recently announced plans to make additional The Lord of the Rings movies, and now it’s come to light that the companies are hoping to create a “Star Wars-like franchise” out of LOTR.
A source told The Hollywood Reporter that, “Warner Bros. hopes to turn LOTR into a Star Wars-like franchise.” That’s all the report had to say about that, but the suggestion would be that WB believes it can grow and expand LOTR to become an even more gigantic series than it already is.
Star Wars, for example, includes movies, TV shows, and countless other adaptations and merchandising. For what it’s worth, LOTR does a lot of those same things already.