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Film scene from »The Lord of the Rings«: The first trilogy by Peter Jackson alone brought in more than three billion US dollars at the box office
Photo: United Archives / IMAGO
Middle-earth fans can once again be happy: As the production giant Warner Bros announced on Thursday, further films from the "Lord of the Rings" universe are being planned.
In cooperation with the Embracer Group, the Warner Bros subsidiary New Line Cinema wants to bring further stories from the literary world of JRR Tolkien to the big screen.
The Swedish games group Embracer took over the company Middle-earth Enterprises last year and has since owned the film rights for the literary work about “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”, as reported by the “Hollywood Reporter”.
New Line previously co-produced the two trilogies that hit theaters from 2001 to 2014.
It is still unknown which storylines or characters could be the focus of new productions.
In a joint statement, Warner Bros. executive directors Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy said: "For all the scale and detail lovingly woven into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and overwhelming universe that is JRR Tolkien remains has dreamed of is largely unexplored in film.' Now they wanted to 'invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth'.
The boss of the production company Freecode, Lee Guinchard, also promised a "new and exciting way" to bring Tolkien's literature back to the screen.
Director Peter Jackson, who was responsible for the two trilogies, is apparently also involved.
He told Variety he's been kept up to date on every step in the planning of the new films and is excited to hear what's next for the films.
The TV rights are still with the US group Amazon.
Its Prime streaming service broadcast the first season of its Middle-earth series »The Rings of Power« in 2022.
This depicts the prehistory of »The Hobbit« and »Lord of the Rings«.
So the action of the series took place several thousand years before its events.
The spin-off is considered the most expensive series production in the world to date, and a second season is currently in the works.
However, Amazon only owns the rights for the so-called Second Age of Middle-earth, whereas Warner Bros should also fall back on core characters such as Frodo or Aragorn.
So whether fans will see the characters back on screen remains to be seen.
The release of another spin-off is initially planned for April 2024: The animated film »The War of the Rohirrim« takes place around 200 years before the events of »The Lord of the Rings«.
zob/dpa