Believe it or not, Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings movies debuted more than 20 years ago. The third movie, Return of the King, swept the Oscars and won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Jackson. He followed those up with a much less critically adored (but still commercially successful!) The Hobbit trilogy. Now, two decades on, Warner Bros. and New Line have announced plans to make new The Lord of the Rings movies, and that makes for potentially exciting news for fans of the series.
As with any announcement about new entries to a beloved series, some fans are skeptical, and understandably so. WB/New Line is plotting ahead with an attempt to create what insiders are calling a Star Wars-like universe for Middle-earth. These new movies are coming as Amazon Studios plots its own legally and creatively distinct Lord of the Rings project with the TV series The Rings of Power, which is now under production for Season 2.
In this post, we’re rounding up everything we know about the new Lord of the Rings movies.