Maybe We Really Don't Need More Tolkien Movies

Why churning out more movies based on Tolkien's legendarium is potentially bad for Tolkien and for fantasy writ large.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was more than a little excited when Warner Bros. announced yesterday that they would be investing in new films based on the works of my beloved JRR Tolkien. After all, who doesn’t want to see more of Middle-earth brought to the big screen, particularly given the many advancements that have been made in both practical effects and CGI since the release of Peter Jackson’s monumental trilogy 20 years ago? And, if the success of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has told us anything, it’s that there is still an appetite for explorations of the nooks and crannies of Tolkien’s creation.

The more I thought about it, however, the more I actually came to the opposite conclusion. Far from needing more Tolkien adaptations, I actually think that a glut of more Middle-earth media might not be an unmitigated good, either for Tolkien’s work itself or for fantasy media writ large.

Let me explain.

It’s no secret that Hollywood continues its love affair with franchises. Though some might already be claiming that the MCU has lost its way with Phase Five and the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and though the uproar over Hogwarts Legacy shows the perils attendant on even well-established and (somewhat) beloved properties, both of these have been enormously successful from a profit point of view. Ant-Man has so far earned over $260 million at the box office, and Hogwarts Legacy continues to be a part of the cultural conversation.

And, indeed, Warner Bros. seems in particular need of a guaranteed hit. The studio has struggled recently, mired in difficulties associated with the DCEU and its various shake-ups, the chaos of HBO Max, and a significant loss in Q4. Coupled with the risk-averse nature of contemporary Hollywood (or historical Hollywood, for that matter), it makes sense that they would return to something that has already proven to be such a moneymaker. It’s also not as if there isn’t plenty of material for them to work with in terms of Tolkien’s legendarium. While Jackson’s works stand as the definitive adaptations of his two most widely-read books (though some might say that The Hobbit is ready for a new interpretation), The Rings of Power focuses mainly on the Second Age. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, this gives potential filmmakers a lot of area to play in including delving more deeply into the backstories of various characters from the Third Age, including Bilbo and Aragorn.

Is this really such a good idea, though? Yes, it’s always nice to see our beloved characters on the screen–whether large or small–but sometimes it’s better if their backstories are simply left in the vague state in which they appear. Disney has already shown how the continual mining of the same creative vein can often start to have diminishing returns, in that both Marvel and Star Wars have come to seem more like mere pieces of content rather than works of popular art. I loved Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I did find myself wondering whether we really needed to see what this particular Jedi was up to during the period before A New Hope begins.

More importantly, in my view, this rush to produce more franchise-friendly content is also not great news for fantasy film and TV writ large. I love Tolkien, and both the books and Jackson’s films (and, more recently, The Rings of Power) are near and dear to my heart. I read the books and rewatch Jackson’s films regularly, and there is always something new to discover, some new piece of lore that has lain hidden, just waiting to be uncovered. That doesn’t mean that I want or need a constant deluge of new Tolkien content, no matter how compellingly it’s written or how gorgeously it’s shot . 

Moreover, this is also a golden age when it comes to the types of work being published, and epic fantasy in particular is in a period of heightened variety. These days, we’re seeing a huge influx of new and diverse voices, and every year sees the publication of sprawling stories being penned by all sorts of people who, until fairly recently, had largely been shut out or were woefully underrepresented. We have authors like S.A. Chakraborty giving us a beautiful world inspired by Islam, Shelley Parker-Chan telling a soaring tale of love and war and betrayal based on Chinese history, and Tomi Adeyemi diving deep into the rich traditions of Africa to create a heartbreaking saga of magic and blood. 

 Now, I’m not saying that each and every one of these needs to be adapted or, more to the point, that all of them would be blockbusters if they were turned into movies or TV series. What I am saying is that they at least have that chance, that it ‘s not fair (or productive for the industry) for studios to keep going back again and again and again to the same well. This risk-averse strategy is even more frustrating in that some of these have already been optioned but have as of yet not seen the light of day, as the big studios like Amazon and Warners and Disney continue to return to tried-and-true properties like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time and, of course, the MCU.

Of course, there is always the possibility that Tolkien and Jackson fans, as prickly and prone to criticism as they are, will flock to whatever new films Warner Bros. decides to release in the coming years. And it goes without saying that I will be one of the first in line to buy a ticket when they finally do come out. However, I do hope that, going forward, both Warners and the other major studios start looking further afield for inspirations for their next big ticket item. They might just find that they can revitalize their own fortunes and inject some much-needed new energy into their production slates, even as they give audiences yearning for a sense of wonder new worlds to explore.