New Lord of The Rings Films Are On The Way, Peter Jackson Returning?
Peter Jackson has been involved in Warner Bros. Discovery's development of new Lord of the Rings films, though he won't admit to further involvement yet, it's still a good sign for Tolkien fans.
In an investor call earlier today, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shocked the world by announcing that more Lord of the Rings films are being worked on. New Line Cinema, the studio behind Peter Jackson‘s classics, is also working on the new films. The Hollywood Reporter shared details on the investor call, including a statement from the famous director on the new films.
Warner Bros. and Embracer have kept us in the loop every step of the way. We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.
Peter Jackson on being involved with the new Lord of the Rings films
The latest move from Warner Bros. Discovery follows a disappointing year for the company with Black Adam coming in well below expectations, Don’t Worry Darling performing reasonably well but not spectacular, and The Secrets of Dumbledore putting a nail in the coffin of the Harry Potter spin-off series. In addition, Amazon has put a record-setting amount of money behind their Lord of the Rings series, which is either a massive hit or an incredible disappointment depending on the source of information.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s new films differ from Rings of Power because they are set in the Third Age of Middle-Earth, the same period as the prior movies, and when the most famous characters are still alive. Amazon’s Rings of Power is set in the Second Age, thousands of years earlier in the history of Tolkien’s world, a time not covered by his most popular novels. This means that, just perhaps, we could get the further adventures of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.
From 2001 through 2003, Peter Jackson’s Lords of the Ring trilogy ruled the box office and quickly became the most successful fantasy films in history. The three films combined to earn nearly $3 billion at the box office and likely another large fortune in DVD and Blu-Ray releases. The fantastic cast included Viggo Mortenson, best-known at the time as the villain of Demi Moore’s G.I.Jane, who became a household name, and Orlando Bloom, who starred in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Making a follow-up film on either of their characters, Aragorn and Legolas, would be much easier than finding a narrative reason for Elijah Wood’s Frodo or Sir Ian McKellan’s Gandalf to return to the land of man. Technically, there’s a Lord of the Rings sequel called “The New Shadow” set a hundred years after the destruction of the One Ring, but J.R.R. Tolkien only wrote 13 pages before abandoning the project.
While The Hobbit trilogy wasn’t as well received, Peter Jackson’s second set of films in Middle-Earth were all financially successful. With the DCU’s future up in the air, no Harry Potter projects in the pipeline, and drastic cost-cutting measures taking place at HBO Max, going back to the Lord of the Rings well will likely be highly successful for the media conglomerate. Getting Jackson involved again, which from his own words, it seems that he already is, will go a long way to winning over fans disillusioned by their experience with Smaug.
