What Exactly Does The New Warner Bros. And Embracer Group Deal Mean For The Future Of Lord Of The Rings?

TV & Film

Mar 5

Even for those within the fandom of Middle-earth, knowing who has what rights to Tolkien’s policies is like playing Guess Who? First, it was Warner Bros. with the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Then Amazon entered the mix with The Rings of Power. Now, Embracer Group, a media corporation out of Sweden, made news by acquiring rights as well, and just sealed a new deal with Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. The question remains, then, who owns what, and who can make what?

Here’s a simplified list of who owns what as a result of the Embracer and Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema deal that was put together by Fellowship of Fans.

Amazon: TV Lord of the Rings
Warner Brothers: Movie Lord of the Rings
Embracer: Owner of the 2 rights above
Tolkien Estate: The Silmarillion

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Fellowship of Fans has done an excellent job of laying out the ins and outs of these deals. According to their tweets, Embracer owns the broad umbrella of rights for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. That’s television, movies, video games, merchandise, etc. While the Tolkien Estate still retains authority over everything, Embracer has control of the creative distribution of these intellectual properties.

It can get further complicated with knowing the minutiae of the deals. For example, Embracer wants to do merchandise for the new shows and movies, but they apparently can’t use designs from The Rings of Power without Amazon’s approval, and Amazon can’t do their own merchandise without Embracer’s approval.

Let’s take a look at some examples of what this all means.

Surely the first thing on everyone’s mind is: will they remake the Jackson films? The answer to that is…no. According to Fellowship of Fans, the new deal forbids the remake of the Jackson films. So that should put many fans at ease.People on Twitter asked if Warner Bros. could technically do what Amazon is doing and make a series about the Second Age. That ultimately comes down to a “no.” For one thing, Embracer has a close relationship with Amazon and they’re not going to allow Warner Bros. to compete with what Amazon is doing. Effectively, then, Warner Bros. has the movie realm, and Amazon has the TV realm.

What about the First Age and earlier, can anyone do things from The Silmarillion? Yes and no. As we’ve already seen, there were references to the First Age in The Rings of Power, as well as the Age of the Trees, but most of the First Age and before are restricted because the rights to that are still under the stewardship of the Tolkien Estate. However, according to one of Fellowship of Fans’ tweets, Embracer can approve some The Silmarillion content. It’s unclear what they’re talking about because their other tweets keep mentioning that First Age material is under the purview of the Tolkien Estate. They did say, however, that if Embracer and Warner Bros. are still together beyond this three-year deal, and the First Age rights are up for purchase, that could change.

Despite these restrictions, there are plenty of Third Age stories that Warner Bros. and New Line can tackle. Remember, The Hobbit took place nearly 3000 years into the Third Age. The Rings of Power takes place well within the Second Age. It’s expected that the show will depict the Fall of Numenor and the Battle of Dagorlad where Sauron lost the One Ring, heralding the end of the Second Age. Numenor falls about 100 years before the Battle of Dagorlad, which took place 3434 years into the Second Age. One of the possibilities speculated by Fellowship of Fans is the Angmar War.

Hopefully, that clears up any confusion. With all this attention on The Lord of the Rings, it’s an exciting time to be a Tolkien fan.

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