There is, in theory, interesting Tolkien material still to adapt, but reason to doubt that it would be considered, or adapted well. Flawed retreads are likelier.
Last week brought news that Warner Bros./New Line had struck a deal with Swedish video-game company Embracer Group, which currently owns adaptation rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, to make new Lord of the Rings movies. The days since haven’t brought much in the way of specifics. But they have clarified certain details and emphasized the challenges these new adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work will face, whatever form they take.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the deal limits adaptations to the Third Age of Middle-earth, in which The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are set. That simultaneously gives Warner Bros. rights to the most famous characters and stories, while cutting off much of the material that has not yet been adapted to screen. (The rich lore of The Silmarillion appears to be off the table.) The Reporter construes this as a flight to the familiar; Ross Douthat might consider it more evidence of “decadence,” a society-wide inability to create anything new and an insistence on returning to the old. Maybe. But remakes and readaptations are almost as old as cinema itself. What’s different now is that filmmaking is such an expensive, risky enterprise that few are willing to gamble on anything other than surefire hits and tentpoles. The challenge W.B. faces, assuming it is mostly adapting familiar material, is to make any adaptation actually worthwhile (i.e., not simply treading the same ground) without alienating a (famously nitpicky) fanbase or turning off general audiences.
Some people who might be able to help forge a successful path: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, who helmed and scripted the critically and commercially successful Lord of the Rings film trilogy two decades ago. Their involvement is not guaranteed, at this point, but they are apparently being courted. A challenge here, however, aside from simply getting them involved, is to ensure they don’t make whatever mistakes led to the disastrous (sorry, George Santos) Hobbit trilogy a decade ago.
The involvement of these three would further distinguish W.B.’s new Lord of the Rings adaptations from Amazon’s ongoing TV series, The Rings of Power. Jackson & Co. were reportedly in discussions about that series but ultimately were never involved. The Rings of Power also differs from these as-yet-undeveloped adaptations because it covers the Second Age, whose events play into and some of whose characters overlap with the more-famous Third Age. Already, some awkwardness is emerging about these properties existing conterminously.
The last challenge, already highlighted by what little information we know about this project, is to overcome the overwhelming sense of retreading, and of superfluity. Already, a part of me — perhaps located near the part that found the first season of Rings of Power at best a mixed bag — is filled with dread, not excitement, about the prospect of more Lord of the Rings. Modern Hollywood’s record with beloved IP is not exactly inspiring of late. There is a tendency to deconstruct or to modernize in such a way as to ruin. But “he who breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.” And the apparent desire on the part of W.B. “to turn LOTR into a Star Wars–like franchise” makes me want to send the whole studio back to the shadow. There is a lot of material, even in just the Third Age, that could be interesting to see adapted in some form, to be sure. But we’re probably just going to end up with the adventures of Young Aragorn or something like that instead.
The really interesting stuff, none of which has really been adapted yet, is in sources such as The Silmarillion. (Yes, not even The Rings of Power actually has the rights to that work, for complicated reasons.) Give me a four-hour adaptation of the Ainulindalë (the creation account of Tolkien’s world). Give Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky free rein to do an animated series portraying the elves’ early wars with Melkor (and with each other). Heck, give me a brutal account of the collapse of Arnor, the great northern kingdom of men that the Witch-King and his forces divided and then defeated. (Not in The Silmarillion, admittedly, but in the Third Age . . .)
I am, in short, conflicted. There is good material to adapt, and I am not entirely opposed to the idea of revisiting Middle-earth in some fashion. But I lack confidence in the possible adapters; in their willingness to do something (relatively) new; and in their ability to handle new material well if they do try it. That’s not much hope. I guess. But there never was any hope. Just a fool’s hope.