New Lord of the Rings Movies in Works at Warner Bros.

The Warner Bros. movie studio is developing new installments in the blockbuster "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" franchises based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels set in the fictional world of Middle-earth.

In a statement on Thursday, Warner Bros., owned by Warner Bros. Discovery said it had reached a multi-year agreement to collaborate on new movies with Middle-earth Enterprises, a unit of Embracer Group AB.

"For all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex, and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film," Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement.

The movies will be developed through the Warner Bros. production company New Line Cinema, which produced the trilogy made by the director Peter Jackson between 2001 and 2003. 

"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which began in 2001, won 17 Oscars. Three "Hobbit" movies were released starting in 2012. The six movies, directed by Peter Jackson, hauled in more than $6 billion at global box offices.

Embracer acquired rights to The Lord of the Rings movies, games, merchandise, theme parks, and live productions when it bought Middle-earth Enterprises in 2022.

De Luca and Abdy said New Line took an unprecedented leap of faith on Tolkien’s world two decades ago but signaled that any new films would not necessarily revisit what Jackson’s films had covered, saying: “For all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by JRR Tolkien remains largely unexplored.”

Zaslav, who has overseen major cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery after the media conglomerate formed from a merger between WarnerMedia and Disovery Inc. last year, has talked about the need for more film franchises to make profits. 

The media conglomerate disclosed a $2.1bn loss on Thursday, mostly attributed to writedowns and cuts from the merger.

New Line and Warner Bros. Animation are working on "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim", an animated film set 183 years before the events in "The Lord of the Rings".

The movie expands on the story of Helm Hammerhand, a legendary leader of the kingdom of Rohan, and is slated to be released in cinemas in April 2024.

Amazon continues to own the TV rights to The Lord of the Rings. The tech giant’s first show, "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power", cost more than $450m to make.