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Who Owns the Rights to The Lord of the Rings Franchise?


Credit: New Line Cinema

We all know Peter Jackson's film trilogies, The Lord of the Rings (2001-3) and The Hobbit (2012-14) but there are a few lesser-known media based on Tolkien's works that are also getting some attention lately, while others are forthcoming, and we can likely expect even more in the future. This might invite the question of who owns the rights to The Lord of the Rings franchise.

A lot of books, fantasy or otherwise, receive one single adaptation, and no one thinks much about the copyright. But when it comes to very famous works, things get more complicated, especially when the author is not alive, but nor have the works passed into the public domain yet.

Who Owns the Rights to The Lord of the Rings Franchise
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Credit: New Line Cinema

It all seemed quite simple when The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were being adapted, but Amazon's Lord of the Rings and the recent announcement of a Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrimanime invite the question of copyright again – all the more so since it's more or less known that The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, for instance, can't be adapted.

The Tolkien Estate – the legal body that manages the property of J. R. R. Tolkien – retains the rights to any work by the author that was collected, edited, and published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, and unless they choose to sell said rights, there is not going to be a Silmarillion films or tv show anytime soon.

In contrast, exclusive rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings franchises are held by Middle-Earth Enterprises, the business name of a Saul Zaentz Company division. This is because J. R. R. Tolkien himself sold film and other rights of these books to United Artists, who, in their turn, sold them to Saul Zeantz.

From there on, things get a little complicated, if we are to understand who has the right to produce what based on Tolkien's works. What we need to know for the purposes of this article, is that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. hold film rights to The Lord of the Rings franchise, which is why the War of the Rohirrim anime can go on. If it was not based on an appendix found in The Lord of the Rings book, it would have been a different story.

Related:The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended & Theatrical ) 4K Ultra HD & Digital Drops to Lowest Price Ever

For more articles like this, take a look at our Lord of the Rings page.