Warner Bros. Still Has the Rights to LotR Movies; Your Move, Amazon
After the successful release of Amazon's Rings of Power, we may see renewed interest in adapting the works of Tolkein to film.
Dave Zaslav (the current CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery) has recently discussed that the studio will be looking to focus on its owned franchises in the near future, including their rights to The Lord of the Rings movies.
Considering that Peter Jackson's film trilogies made an estimated total of $5.9 billion between the LotR and the Hobbit series, this is hardly an unexpected interest for the studio. But what will this mean for Amazon and their own rights to Tolkien's works? Could Warner Bros.' competing films push The Rings of Power series out of its way in the process?
Understand the legal rights of Tolkien's work
Before we start speculating on the future of Middle-Earth on screen, it's first worth understanding exactly what right each company has to produce anything based on the books.
Tolkien himself sold the rights to movie adaptations of LotR and The Hobbit in 1969. They were then leased to other studios over the years, which is how Jackson's featured films came to be made. To this day, through the acquisition of various studios, Warner Bros. still holds the rights which allow them to make film adaptations of all the books.
It wasn't until much later in 2017, that Amazon then bought the television rights to adapt some of Tolkien's books (excluding the appendices). Which is how they produced The Rings of Power.
Naturally, this has provided a schism between the two competing studios, who are both very eager to make use of their cash cow, in the form of their costly but profitable Tolkien rights.
But what does this mean for future adaptations of the books?
Could too much Tolkien be a bad thing?
It's rare to see the rights to such a prominent franchise be split so awkwardly between two studios. Therefore the uneasy dilemma of two studios co-producing separate films and series simultaneously is not something producers are often used to.
Considering Zaslav's recent comments on behalf of Warner Bros. Amazon may have to think very carefully about how they continue the future of both The Rings of Power and any other Tolkien projects they may have bookmarked for the future.
Competing films and series may seem positive to fans who will always call for wanting more, but truthfully, it could wear the Tolkienverse thin instead. We have already seen fans do not often respond positively to new adaptions which stray too far from the original source material. Therefore it is unlikely the studios will risk investing in many further projects which feature a predominately original story based on Tolkien. However, to remake LotR or The Hobbit, which still lives so close to the hearts of many fans, would also appear as a risky venture.
Additionally, Warner Bros.'s interest in making more LotR movies could pose a major threat to Amazon's expensive new series. Although The Rings of Power has managed to attract reasonable viewing numbers for its initial season, it has not launched so successfully that it has had no criticisms.
Warner Bros. will have the advantage to learn from Amazon's mistakes in its own future releases. Making sure to stay closer to the source material, and continue the story of Middle-Earth that the audience will already be familiar with.
Anything included in future movies' backstories that contradicts the show's version of events, may also threaten to push the series further from within the realm of canon. Removing its legitimacy as part of the franchise from the perspectives of Tolkien fans.
In any case, it will likely be a long time until we hear of any further developments of LotR projects from either Warner Bros. or Amazon. As we know from The Rings of Power, the show has both demonstrated the complexity, and set the bar for quality for producing a 'Tolkien project'.
Plus Warner Bros. has many other franchises to focus on first that is not quite as complicated concerning rights or ownership. Other popular owned franchises for the company include Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, which Zaslav has also shown interest in. Maybe they will tackle another fantasy franchise first.