Topline
Warner Bros. Discovery is planning two new live-action “Lord of the Rings” movies, with the first eyeing a potential 2026 release—marking the blockbuster series’ first new film in a decade, directed by and starring Andy Serkis, who starred in the original trilogy of the early 2000s, and featuring that trilogy’s director Peter Jackson as a producer.
FILE - Peter Jackson, left, director, co-writer and producer of the film trilogies "The Lord of the ... [+]
Key Facts
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav first confirmed in a Thursday earnings call that a new Lord of the Rings movie was “in the early stages of script development” with a potential 2026 release date, and with Jackson “involved every step of the way.”
It will be the first of two new live-action “Lord of the Rings” movies from Jackson, longtime partner Fran Walsh and screenwriter Philippa Boyens, all three of whom worked together on “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” according to a press release from Warner Bros. released after Zaslav’s earnings call.
In its press release, Warner Bros. disclosed a working title for the movie, “The Hunt For Gollum,” with Serkis at the helm—Serkis played the titular character Gollum in the original trilogy and in Jackson’s later prequel trilogy “The Hobbit,” and has performed in numerous other blockbuster movies, including Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther,” “Planet of the Apes” and Jackson’s 2005 “King Kong.”
Warner Bros. is working with studio New Line Cinema, which produced the original trilogy and which Warner Bros. acquired in 2008.
It’s the first substantial update on the movies since Zaslav first announced them last year and teased Jackson’s involvement—Zaslav confirmed that the movies will tread new narrative ground instead of functioning as a remake of the now more-than-20-year-old trilogy.
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Big Number
$6 billion. That’s how much the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies—both set in author J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth—grossed, making it among the top 20 highest grossing movie franchises of all time. The third entry in the “Lord of the Rings,” the 2003 film “Return of the King” won 11 Oscars that year, including Best Picture, tying “Titanic” and “Ben-Hur” for the most in history.
Key Background
Zaslav has emphasized the importance of “Lord of the Rings” as a central part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s future strategy, claiming it, along with the “Harry Potter” franchise and DC Comics, are some of the struggling legacy media company’s biggest IP assets but are currently “underused.” The last movie set in Middle Earth was the final entry in the Hobbit trilogy, “the Battle of the Five Armies,” which came out in 2014. Warner is also rebooting the “Harry Potter” franchise with a new TV series on its Max streaming service that’s also eyeing a 2026 release, following up on the decade-long run of movies based on J.K. Rowling’s book series that was released from 2001 to 2011. Additionally, the company has tapped director James Gunn to reboot its movies based around the DC Comics superheroes, with a new Superman movie set to be released next year.
What To Watch For
Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are releasing a new animated “Lord of the Rings” movie called “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” which will be released this Christmas. Any new “Lord of the Rings” will also have to contend with Amazon Prime’s “The Rings of Power,” a TV series set thousands of years before the events of “Lord of the Rings,” which has cost Amazon nearly $1 billion and is considered to be the most expensive show of all time. Season two is set to premiere later this year after season one earned generally positive reviews from critics but became the target of online controversy over its diverse cast.
Tangent
Warner Bros. Discovery announced Thursday while it saw growth in its streaming subscribers, revenues missed expectations and dropped 7% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023. Its share price was up roughly 1% Thursday morning.
