After directing The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, award-winning director Peter Jackson just revealed that he’s in talks to develop another film in the fantasy franchise. During an interview with Deadline, Jackson said that the “next generation” currently in charge of the Tolkien Estate is “much more open to talking” about expanding the storytelling of The Lord of the Rings on screen. He and Warner Bros. have been “talking to the younger members about the possibility of actually licensing the rights of some of the other books.”

Peter Jackson at the London premiere of Lord Of The Rings War of the RohirrimImage via PA Images/INSTARimages

Up until now, the adaptations have focused on the main Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books, as well as the included appendices, but Jackson would love to “get away from some of the appendices and get something meatier.” He specifically called out The Silmarillion, adding, “There’s a lot more Tolkien writing which would make great movies.”
“There’s a lot more Tolkien writing which would make great movies…The next generation [of the Tolkien estate] are much more open to talking. So it’s a combination of Warners and us who have been talking to the younger members about the possibility of actually licensing the rights of some of the other books. It would be nice to get away from some of the appendices and get something meatier.”
Even though author J.R.R. Tolkien is best known for publishing The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in 1954 and 1955, he also wrote other books and stories set in the world of Middle-earth, most notably The Silmarillion, which is a favorite among Tolkien fans. The Tolkien Estate still holds the adaptation rights to that book, which is why it has never been adapted for the screen before. After Tolkien died in 1973, his son, Christopher Tolkien, spearheaded efforts to publish other Middle-earth stories that his father had never released, including The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, The History of Middle-earth, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. Christopher stepped down as head of the Tolkien Estate in 2017 and passed away in 2020. Now there’s a younger generation in charge of the bestselling author’s estate. The Silmarillion, in particular, is one Middle-earth story that the Tolkien Estate has held on to tightly over the years, with Jackson saying that Christopher balked at the idea of handing over the adaptation rights to this book. But with the changing of the guard comes a willingness not to be as stringent anymore.

Jackson is best known for directing the hugely successful and award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, with the final film winning 11 Oscars in 2004, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Original Song. He then returned to the franchise by helming The Hobbit films, replacing Guillermo del Toro, who was originally hired to direct. After the final Hobbit movie, The Battle of the Five Armies, was released in 2014, the franchise lay dormant for eight years until Prime Video debuted The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, an epic fantasy series inspired by The Lord of the Rings appendices that features younger versions of characters like Galadriel and Elrond. It was recently announced that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 will premiere on November 11, 2026. An animated film called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was released in 2024, and even though it was panned by critics, that hasn’t stopped Warner Bros. from bringing Middle-earth back to the big screen. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum, is directing The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is scheduled for December 17, 2027.

Beyond that, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, who is a massive Lord of the Rings fan and has an encyclopedic knowledge of Middle-earth, is co-writing the screenplay for a movie called The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past with Peter McGee (his son) and Philippa Boyens. The story is inspired by The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring chapters 3 to 8, which Jackson did not adapt in his films. Colbert already has a connection to the film adaptations after a cameo as a lake-town spy in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Based on Jackson’s latest comments, it sounds like talks are currently underway for Warner Bros. to potentially buy additional film rights to Tolkien’s books. Jackson himself chose not to direct The Hunt for Gollum, and while he’s part of the discussions with the Tolkien Estate, it’s unclear if he would direct a future The Lord of the Rings movie or merely serve as a producer.

Cast

Norman Bird, Anthony Daniels, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Karl Urban, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Morfydd Clark, Mike Wood, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Charlie Vickers, Markella Kavenagh, Megan Richards, Sara Zwangobani, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Lenny Henry, Brian Cox, Shaun Dooley, Miranda Otto, Bilal Hasna, Benjamin Wainwright, Luke Pasqualino, Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt

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J.R.R. Tolkien