You’ve undoubtedly heard about Warner Bros.’ reacquisition of the film rights to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Lord of the Rings by now. Warner Bros., or specifically its subsidiary New Line Cinema, produced the classic Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens film trilogy and the trio’s subsequent Hobbit films, and has agreed to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a new deal with the Embracer Group to develop new Tolkien feature films. It’s far too early to say whether thi🌃s is good or bad news for fans of the books, but first, some mythbusting:
It appears that Warner has the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as they were mentioned by name in . That means The Silmarillion is off the cards, altho൩ugh The Rings of Power has shown that you dﷺon’t need the rights to the Second Age to set a TV series during the time period. So that narrows the plot down to… anything, really. However, Embracer’s previous statements may give us some ideas as to what pitches it would be receptive to from Warner.
“Other opportunities include exploring additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, and Eowyn [si𓄧c], and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and continue to provide new opportunities,” the Swedish conglomerate in August last year when it acquired the rights to Tolkien’s world.
A ‘Hunt For Gollum’ film would see Aragorn and Gandalf scurry after the titular creature, thus including three of Embracer’s key characters. From Embracer’s perspective, it seems like a no-brainer, but as a fan, this will complete the MCU-ification of Tolkien – I don’t need films about the minute details of Gandalf’s backstory, some things are better left unexplai🦂ned. Tolkien was a master of letting readers’ imaginations flow freely, and this art becomes most apparent when you realise how sparse he is when it comes to the꧒ details. Filling in these blanks feels like the antithesis of Tolkien’s mastery, but sadly seems inevitable. As much as I would love to see Ian McKellen don the big grey hat again, and I will watch anything that Viggo Mortensen decides to do with his time, I don’t want to see weird, de-aged CGI characters engaged in a pointless, metric-appeasing, focus-group-tested movie.
But things could get even worse than that. The Embracer press release from August also explained that it was pursuing a “IP-driven transmedia🐽 strategy.” That doesn’t mean Aragorn is going to be hitting the oestrogen in any future movies, but that Embracer wants all of its Lord of the Rings media to be linked to each other. And with Warner back in the fold, I think that means a Shadow of Mordor 🏅film.
Listen, Shadow of Mordor was fun. The Nemesis System is revolutionary, and ‘Assassin’s Creed except Orcs and Elves’ is a frankly brillian♏t pitch. From a canon perspective, however, it’s a complete bastardisation of Tolkien, far worse than the 21st century films or The Rings of Power. The story was threadbare and only fl🔥irted (at best) with Tolkien’s plots and ideas. At worst, it outright ignored the texts it was based on. I don’t care too much about that – it was a fun game and I’ve still got the books if I want some actual Tolkien – but I flinch at the idea of converting that to the silver screen.
Talion is a dead human brought 🍬back to life by the ghost of Celebrimbor, who also grants him superhuman powers. Helm Hammerhand is a Ringwraith. Shelob is a sexy lady. When you divorce the plot, characters, and lore from all the Uruk beheading and volcanic parkour, it suddenly becomes clear how awful this film would be. And that’s before you remember how bad the Assassin’s Creed film was.
There’s hope yet. Nothing is set in stone, and there are Rings Things to be excited about in the future. The War of the Rohirrim is an anime starring a non-Ringwraithed Helm Hammerhand that could be both canonical and interesting – if Embracer continues to, um, embrace new formats and styles for its Tolkien endeavours, I’ll be very happy. Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens have been kept “in the loop every step of the way” during the new Warner rights deal, and could well come back on board for future films. Another offering from the trio most synonymous with The Lord of the Rings after Tolkien himself could be as good as their original trilogy, or it could go the way of 🦂The Hobbit. But they need a solid story to work with.
Whether the new Warner Bros. films are filling in backstories to major characters or adapting games to the big screen, I’m not feeling confident about their quality. Ultimately, the best source for new 🔜Tolkien stories is the man himself, and those unexplored remain in the apparently as-of-yet unlicensed Silmarillion. The Children of Húrin is a Greek tragedy of epic scale, and a TV adaptation would rival Game of Thrones in terms of both incest and violence. Beren and Luthien is a classic love story for the ages. I want to see the fire in Fëanor’s eyes and the smiting anger of the Valar. But I don’t want films for the sake of it, I don’t want to see aimless backstory films about Faramir and Beregond’s lives as children in Minas Tirith. And, most of all, I don’t want to see Talion anywhere near the big screen. Tolkien’s legacy doesn’t deserve such a fate.