Image via ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Variety reports that David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, revealed during a Thursday earnings call that studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy had reached an agreement with rights-holding Swedish gaming company Embracer Group that would enable them to put “multiple” new LOTR films in the works.
Twenty years after its theatrical debut, The Return of the King, the concluding film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has earned $1.146 billion worldwide, ranking it as the 27th highest-grossing film of all time.
All three movies were directed by Peter Jackson, who in a statement alongside Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who worked on the Lord of the Rings, said that Warner Bros. and Embracer “have kept us in the loop every step of the way.”
“We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward,” reads the statement from Boyens, Walsh, and Jackson, who returned to Tolkien’s world for three The Hobbit movies from 2012-14.
Zaslav was convinced that Warner Bros. should concentrate on franchises back in November during an investors call, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. He cited the absence of new Harry Potter or Superman films for more than ten years. He briefly mentioned the possibility of bringing back The Lord of the Rings.