With the recent announcement that Warner Brothers will be making their own rendition of Lord of the Rings-related films, fans are keeping their eyes peeled for hints as to whether they will be a direct remake of the beloved trilogy, or whether they will cover new source material from the Tolkien legendarium. Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations from 2001-2003 were so hugely popular that many of the core followers believe it would be a mistake to try to redo something that was already so successful and so well-loved the first time around. However, there are definitely ways that the trilogy has aged badly, and some scenes there were included or were cut out that created huge variations from the books. So perhaps the Warner Brother movies could cover everything that Peter Jackson’s versions missed.
It has already been rumored that Sir Peter Jackson himself, alongside Phillipa Boyens, may even be consulting on the films, which would make them a fantastic chance to redo all of the scenes and moments that were least favored in the original movies. On the other hand, there is a huge amount of source material that hasn’t been covered yet in on-screen adaptations, including that of The Rings of Power that focused primarily on the Second Age of Middle Earth, as detailed in parts of The Silmarillion. The rest of this encyclopedic book, as well as the appendices of the Lord of the Rings, holds a wealth of material that still remains untouched, and would make some great additions to the Warner Brother films.
One of the biggest complaints of the original movies is that they missed a whole huge section of the four hobbits’ journey from Hobbiton to Bree, including the Old Forest, the battle with the Barrow-wights, and of course the illustrious Tom Bombadil, who was able to resist the one ring without even a blink. The chapters with Tom Bombadil are some of the most whimsical and lyrical of the whole stories, which has long made them hugely popular with those who have read the books, and they could make for some visually stunning storytelling if adapted to screen.
There is also the matter of Bilbo’s birthday party before Sam, Frodo, Merry and Pippin have even left The Shire, which is relatively brief in Peter Jackson’s movies, but in the books has a whole host of characters such as the dwarves who are old friends of the 111-year-old hobbit, and who have been sent to move his things out of Bag End and transport them to the Lonely Mountains where Bilbo goes after leaving The Shire, to stay with his old friends before finally returning to Rivendell where he is reunited with Frodo.
Then, of course, there’s the entire section of the book in which the hobbits travel with the woodland elves, the most well-known of whom is Glorfindel, who imparts lots of ancient wisdom on them that helps them on their journey towards meeting Aragorn at the Prancing Pony. There’s also the knowledge of what happens to each of the characters after the War of the Ring, including the passing down of the Red Book of Westermarch, the book that Bilbo was writing, and the tales of Legolas in the woodland, plus Gimli becoming Lord of the Glittering Caves. There are plenty of untold stories in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings that Warner Brothers movies could cover, including how the alliance between Gondor and Rohan first started, or how the Army of the Dead became cursed. And even beyond these magnificent books, there are loads of other Tolkien stories that a new set of films could choose to focus on.
There are hints mentioned about tales like Beren and Luthien, which would be a great story to explore how the love between an elf maiden and a mortal man first came about. Or the tale of the Children of Hurin, which is an almost Romeo and Juliet-style story of two ill-fated lovers who crossed worlds to find one another but ultimately ended in tragedy. Loads of the stories from Tolkien’s Lost Tales have yet to receive the recognition they so markedly deserve, and perhaps if they were adapted to the big screen, they might finally become as much in the public eye and as well-loved as Tolkien’s epic trilogy.
Whatever the Warner films decide to focus on, they will have a huge following of people who are holding their breath in the hopes of something new and exciting to supplement the trilogy that won 11 Oscars, set a precedent for lesser-known genres to hold their own against well-established classics, and changed the fantasy world forever.
