Warner Bros has a Lord of the Rings prequel movie on the way, and several other Middle-earth stories could potentially follow. The upcoming film has been dubbed The Hunt for Gollum and will follow the creature as he is hunted by Gandalf and Aragorn, leading up to the events of Frodo’s story. This is a tale described in relative detail in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring book, which is why Warner Bros has the right to adapt it to film. As exciting as this is, it’s proof that the franchise has only scratched the surface.
Though Peter Jackson covered the primary events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the books mentioned several other exciting stories in Middle-earth. Author J.R.R. Tolkien had developed a complex world with profoundly deep lore, with tales that went back centuries before Bilbo ever found the One Ring. Many of these were outlined in detail in The Silmarillion, and since Warner Bros doesn’t have rights to this book, they can’t be adapted to the screen. However, anything mentioned in The Hobbit, the three Lord of the Rings books, and their appendices are fair game.
The Scouring of the Shire is a chapter in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King that didn’t make it into Jackson’s movie. Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin returned to an entirely unchanged Shire in the on-screen version of Return of the King. The home of the Hobbits had been untouched by Sauron’s war, which drove home just how much the four heroes had changed and grown since they departed.
However, in the Return of the King book, the Hobbits found that the Shire had been all but destroyed during their absence. Saruman had sent lackeys during his rise to power to industrialize the place, and the beautiful gardens, fields, and trees had been wiped away. Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and Sam led the Hobbits in a battle against the Men who had taken over and ultimately won their homes back. This story would require the return of Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan to adapt to a movie, and this alone could be worth it.
The last we saw of Aragorn in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, he was crowned King of Gondor. However, Tolkien took the ranger’s story further in the Appendices of Return of the King. It’s noted that after his crowning, Aragorn became known as King Elessar, and his rule lasted 122 years. Elessar and his wife, Queen Arwen, were deeply loved by their people, and Gondor (and Arnor) became stronger and grander than ever before.
A Lord of the Rings movie following King Elessar would make more sense today than ever before since an older Viggo Mortensen could perfectly pull off a king with a few years of rule under his belt. The film could introduce Aragorn and Arwen’s children, which included several girls and one boy and could also feature the strong relationship between the royal family and the Hobbits of the Shire (who often came to Gondor to visit).
After the events of The Lord of the Rings, Sam married Rosie Cotton and had a whopping 13 children. He became the mayor of the Shire, a position he held for 42 years. His close relationship with King Elessar (Aragorn) meant years of cooperation and prosperity, and many of his children went on to do notable things, especially Elanor, who became Queen Arwen’s Lady in Waiting.
A Lord of the Rings movie following Sam and his children could be highly enjoyable, and given the popularity of the Shire aesthetic, now is the perfect time to make it happen. It would require the return of Sean Astin as Sam, though the film could quickly shift focus to Elanor, who went on to inherit the Red Book of Westmarch (the writings of Bilbo, Frodo, and then Sam).
Gimli and Legolas don’t get much of an ending in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, but Tolkien revealed what happened to these pals following Sauron’s downfall. According to the appendices of Return of the King, Legolas, and Gimli carried through on their promise to visit the locations in Middle-earth they each found the most beautiful (Fanghorn Forest and the Glittering Caves). Then, many years later, the pair sailed together for the Undying Lands.
A movie about Gimli and Legolas’ friendship after Lord of the Rings could be a success since this is a popular duo both in the books and in Jackson’s movies. It’s heartwarming to think they continued to have adventures together, and though they went their separate ways for some years (as Legolas worked on repairing Middle-earth’s forests and Gimli established a settlement in the Glittering Caves), the fact that they came together to sail to paradise would give this possible Lord of the Rings movie a beautiful and heartwarming ending.
Gandalf and his fellow wizards, Saruman, Radagast, and Lord of the Rings‘ Blue Wizards, were part of an order called the Istari, and though a great deal of what is written about their past is found in The Silmarillion, the appendices of Return of the King dove into their past as well. This means that Warner Bros could feasibly create a movie that sees the Istari in Valinor before they were sent to Middle-earth and follows them through their respective journeys.
Of course, Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has already begun to follow this path since The Stranger was revealed to be a member of the Istari (though it’s not yet confirmed which). Still, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Warner Bros couldn’t approach this story in its way, especially since Prime Video has already taken some creative liberties outside of canon.
The story of Beren and Luthien takes up a chapter in The Silmarillion, and Tolkien’s novel about the couple was published after the author’s death. However, Beren and Luthien were also mentioned several times in the Lord of the Rings books, with Aragorn even singing a song about the tragic couple while with the Hobbits on Weathertop. Therefore, Warner Bros may be legally able to adapt this story into a movie.
Luthien was a beautiful elf who fell in love with a mortal man, and to win her father’s blessing, the pair set off on an adventure to retrieve one of the precious Silmarils. This epic adventure has everything a movie needs—romance, action, sacrifice, tragedy, and as many dark beasts and creatures as a fantasy fan could handle. Moreover, the parallels between Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen would make this story the perfect next step for the franchise.
Tom Bombadil was cut from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, but he was a prominent feature near the beginning of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Bombadil was a mysterious being who lived in the forest near the Shire, and he came to the Hobbits’ rescue a couple of times near the beginning of their journey. He was pleasant, wise, and deeply mysterious, which could make him an interesting focus of a future movie.
There could be a variety of problems with a Tom Bombadil Lord of the Rings movie, however. Warner Bros would technically have the rights to the character, but Tolkien purposely never revealed much about who he was or why he had such mysterious power. Bombadil was unaffected by the One Ring, and after Sauron’s downfall, Gandalf spent weeks visiting the strange being, though it’s never revealed why. Warner Bros would have to take many creative liberties to make a Tom Bombadil movie work, which could be controversial.
The Ringwraiths of The Lord of the Rings, including the Witch-King of Angmar, were also fairly mysterious. Though Tolkien made it clear that they were once the Men whom Sauron had given the Nine Rings of Power, there are limited details regarding their actual identities. It’s believed that the Witch-King and a couple of his fellows had been from Numenor, but that’s about the extent of their origins.
Warner Bros could probably get away with taking creative liberties in this regard. It could be exciting to see a movie that watches these nine kings of Men slowly slip into darkness until there is nearly nothing left to them. Of course, this is yet again dipping into The Rings of Power‘s territory since Prime Video’s version of Sauron will surely distribute his Rings of Power.
The Fall of Khazad-dum is another ancient Middle-earth story told in The Silmarillion but discussed in The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf mentions it as the Fellowship of the Ring enters Moria, which was originally a Dwarf kingdom that fell when they mined too deep. Their greed freed a Balrog of Morgoth from the Earth, and the monster laid waste to the kingdom and its king, Durin VI. For this reason, the Balrog became known as Durin’s Bane.
Since this is the Balrog who fought Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, there is often a high level of interest in this story. Again, Prime Video has already gotten the ball rolling for an on-screen adaptation of Khazad-dum’s downfall, but there have been significant changes in the timeline (with King Durin III leading Khazad-dum as of the end of The Rings of Power season 1). A movie adaptation from Warner Bros could, perhaps, align more closely with canon.