Warner Bros. is making new Lord of the Rings movies, and in a development that might be exciting to longtime fans, it appears the studio is trying to woo back Peter Jackson.
Jackson was the director and co-writer on the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings film trilogy from the early 2000s. He also made the three Hobbit movies, though they were less critically adored. According to Variety, Warner Bros. Film Group co-CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy flew to New Zealand to visit Jackson to "reestablish the studio's connection" with him.
That's all the report had to say, but in any event, fans of the fantasy series are probably happy to hear that Jackson is at least in the discussion for the new Lord of the Rings films. We have no idea how those discussions went, however.
None of this is a surprise, as it was previously reported that Jackson--along with his writing partners Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens–have been briefed on the plans for WB/New Line's new films. That's a key point, too, because the trio were not involved in Amazon's The Rings of Power, and fans have made their feelings clear about this.
Whether or not Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens will return for any of the new films in an official capacity beyond advisory roles is unclear. However, The Hollywood Reporter previously claimed that WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav was hoping to bring back Jackson, a development that is now seemingly corroborated by the Variety piece.
But what might a new Lord of the Rings movie look like? For its part, Embracer--which now owns the rights to the series--has said it might explore potential films surrounding characters like Aragorn, Gandalf, Galadriel, and others, but according to a report, there are no scripts yet. It's still very early days, it would seem. In any event, insiders speaking to THR said WB/New Line is aiming to create a Star Wars-like cinematic universe for The Lord of the Rings, and that might be an exciting or terrifying description to hear for fans of the fantasy franchise.
The next Lord of the Rings movie is the animated film War of Rohirrim, which features Succession star Brian Cox as the voice of Helm Hammerhand.
Beyond this, Amazon's Rings of Power series is coming back for a second season, and there are numerous Lord of the Rings video games in development.