Every Upcoming Lord Of The Rings Movie & TV Show

Updated Nov 10, 2026, 9:00 PM EST Sign in to your ScreenRant account The future of The Lord of the Rings looks bright, with several upcoming TV shows and movies set in Middle-earth currently in production. Since the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy began in 2001, the franchise's movie & TV portfolio has expanded via prequels and spinoffs. The enduring legacy of Peter Jackson's movies means rights holders are eager to produce more content derived from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books, and audiences are just as eager to consume it. As of 2026, the official Middle-earth movies and TV shows have been the animated Lord of the Rings adaptations released in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson's subsequent The Hobbit trilogy, the theatrical anime film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and Amazon's The Rings of Power. The lack of further material is partly because the rights to adapt Tolkien's work are split among various parties, but both Warner Bros. and Amazon currently have Middle-earth projects in their pipelines, from prequel The Lord of the Rings movies to big-budget TV spinoffs. The Rings Of Power Season 3 The next installment in The Lord of the Rings' biggest TV spin-off is The Rings of Power season 3. Seasons 1 and 2 aired on Prime Video in 2022 and 2024, respectively, with both being successful enough to warrant a third entry. That entry is set to be released on November 11, 2026, featuring the next step in the prequel story set decades before Jackson's original trilogy. At the end of The Rings of Power season 2, Sauron has control of the Nine Rings of Men, teasing the introduction of the Nazgûl and the War of the Elves and Sauron. Meanwhile, the elves fled north of the fallen Lindon, setting up the formation of Rivendell as a stronghold for the resistance against the Dark Lord. In The Rings of Power season 3, a time skip will see the War of the Elves and Sauron in full swing, as the villain looks to craft the One Ring, and the politics of the island kingdom known as Númenor reach a boiling point. The eight episodes of season 3 will release across three weeks: the first four will drop on Prime Video on November 11, followed by two more on November 18, and the final two on November 25. The Rings Of Power Seasons 4 & 5 MovieStillsDB Upon the announcement of The Rings of Power, it was revealed that the show's creators had planned out five seasons. As of the conclusion of season 2, this was still the plan, with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay confirming that development on season 4 is underway. It has been rumored that season 4 will begin production in early 2027, with some reports claiming it will film simultaneously with season 5. Although this remains slightly unclear, it is highly likely that The Rings of Power's initial five-season arc comes to fruition. The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum The next feature film in the Lord of the Rings franchise will be subtitled The Hunt for Gollum. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in both Jackson trilogies and was the second unit director on all three Hobbit movies, will both direct and star in the film. Development on the project began in the early 2020s, when Warner Bros. began looking for more routes into the realm of Middle-earth on the big screen. Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh, the key creative team behind both prior trilogies, were enlisted, leading to the idea of The Hunt for Gollum. The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was initially planned for release in the winter of 2026. However, development on the project meant it was pushed to December 17, 2027, with production beginning in New Zealand in July 2026. The story will be told from Gollum's perspective, focused on the period between Bilbo Baggins' birthday party and the Mines of Moria sequence from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, in which Gandalf sends Aragorn to search for the creature before Sauron's minions can capture him and find out that the One Ring is in the Shire. Since production began, cast details have been revealed about The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Several actors are reprising their roles from the original Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, including Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Elijah Wood as Frodo. Also returning from previous movies is Lee Pace as the elven king, Thranduil. Aragorn, at this point known as Strider, will also return, but Viggo Mortensen is being replaced by Jamie Dornan to represent a younger, less kingly version of the Lord of the Rings character. Joining these cast members are three newcomers in main roles: Kate Winslet, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Leo Woodall. Winslet will play an unknown character called Marigol, while Taylor-Joy plays Seren, an elf serving Thranduil, and Woodall plays Halvard, a Dunedain ranger traveling with Strider. The Lord Of The Rings: Shadow Of The Past Image: New Line Cinema After development on The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum was announced, it was hinted that Jackson, Boyens, and Walsh were looking at developing more feature films in Middle-earth. Shortly before production on that movie began, Warner Bros. announced another Lord of the Rings movie from Stephen Colbert. The TV personality has long been an avid fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, and developed a new story alongside Jackson, Boyens, and Walsh. With Jackson serving as a producer and Boyens, Colbert, and the latter's son, Peter McGee, as screenwriters, the film was tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. The title comes from a chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring, with brief details revealing that the film will focus on aspects from the novel that Jackson's film adaptation left out. It will reportedly see the return of Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan as Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck, respectively, though it is worth noting this is speculation at this point. This speculation, however, comes from reports that Shadow of the Past will see the trio recounting their journey out of the Shire, leading into flashback adaptations of the Old Forest section of The Fellowship of the Ring, featuring the character notoriously cut from Jackson's film, Tom Bombadil. As of October 2026, Jackson revealed the film was still in the scriptwriting phase, meaning more updates can be expected going into 2027. Further J.R.R. Tolkien Adaptations Image via MovieStillsDB Aside from the aforementioned confirmed projects in development, there will undoubtedly be more Lord of the Rings movies and shows on the way. After all, the franchise is one of the most popular in fantasy history, across movies, TV shows, books, and video games. The success of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power proves as much, as does the ongoing development of more feature films in the franchise. Beyond that, Peter Jackson has teased even more long-awaited adaptations of Tolkien's work. Jackson revealed that the rights to further Tolkien works, such as The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, were potentially becoming available. Following the passing of J.R.R. Tolkien's son, Christopher, who was against releasing such rights for adaptation, Jackson revealed that the younger generation now in control of the Tolkien estate was more open to the possibility. This hints that movie or TV show adaptations of both books could be coming in the future. If these talks progress further, it would not be a surprise to hear of more Middle-earth projects coming up. Of course, theatrical movies seem to be the focus for those at Warner Bros., even after the recent Paramount Skydance merger. However, TV productions could be possible too. Other big franchises under this umbrella, such as DC and Harry Potter, are receiving massive, big-budget HBO shows to ensure the continuation of both, which could be the case for The Lord of the Rings, along with all the other ways Middle-earth is set to live on. Cast Norman Bird, Anthony Daniels, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Karl Urban, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Morfydd Clark, Mike Wood, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Charlie Vickers, Markella Kavenagh, Megan Richards, Sara Zwangobani, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Lenny Henry, Brian Cox, Shaun Dooley, Miranda Otto, Bilal Hasna, Benjamin Wainwright, Luke Pasqualino, Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt Movie(s) The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim The Lord of the Rings is a multimedia franchise consisting of several movies and a TV show released by Amazon titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The franchise is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book series that began in 1954 with The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings saw mainstream popularity with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.