‘Multiple’ Lord of the Rings films officially being made 20 years after Peter Jackson trilogy

We’re going back to Middle Earth: the first new Lord of the Rings films in 20 years are being made, it has been confirmed.

Warner Bros has confirmed new feature films are in the making, 20 years after Peter Jackson wrapped the epic trilogy that broke box office records, making $2.9 billion (£2.41 billion) at the international box office.

The highest-grossing singular film at the international box office is the original Avatar film, which took $2.1 billion in 2009.

 Warner Bros co-chairs, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said: “We are excited. The universe dreamed up by Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film. Inviting fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honour.”

Jackson and his collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens said in a statement to Variety: “We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.” And it has been confirmed that “multiple” films are in the works.

The first Lord of the Rings film, Fellowship of the Ring, came out in 2001, followed by The Two Towers in 2002 and The Return of the King in 2004, which famously won every one of the 11 Oscars it was nominated for.

More recently Middle Earth has been reprised for the small screen with Amazon TV’s Rings of Power, and Jackson returned to direct a three-part prequel to Lord of the Rings called The Hobbit from 2012 to 2014.

There is also a second series of Rings of Power due out in the future, although the series was critically panned and wasn’t a big hit with fans either.

It’s likely that it will have been 10 years since the LOTR franchise was seen on the big screen by the time the new films come out, as the last part of The Hobbit trilogy dropped in 2014.

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