It seems that Warner Bros. wants to take advantage of the success and fame of the Lord of the Rings franchise once again, which may affect the future and success of Amazon's Rings of Power. The studio announced its intention of making more Lord of the Rings films. In fact, not only does Warner Brothers intend on making a new Lord of the Rings movie, but it also seems to be set in a similar time frame to the much-beloved Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. This could be bad news for Rings of Power season 2.

New LOTR Movies Are A Huge Blow To Rings Of Power

Warner Bros. and New Line are reportedly working on new movies related to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, building upon the success and love for Tolkien's saga. They are, therefore, likely going to be set in a similar timeframe, heading back to the Third Age. If Warner Bros. wants to emulate the success of Lord of the Rings, followed of by The Hobbit series, it does make sense that it would set a further Lord of the Rings movie in the same period.

Unfortunately, the new movies will likely be in direct competition with Rings of Power. While on the whole, The Rings of Power was favorably received by critics, it was less loved by general audiences. This is down to a few reasons, but one of them is simply that audiences didn't – and likely won't – care as much about the characters from the Rings of Power TV show the same way they did for the characters from the Lord of the Rings movies. If the new movies bring back familiar characters, it's certain to draw more attention away from The Rings of Power season 2 and beyond.

What The New Lord Of The Rings Movies Can Be About

Given the ending of Lord of the Rings, viewers cannot be sure what the next film focused on the Lord of the Rings timeline could focus on. As Tolkien himself gave up writing another story set in the Third Age, the possible Lord of the Rings sequel never actually happened. So far, nothing more has been announced regarding the plot of the future Lord of the Rings projects, but one thing that is for sure is that it will most likely not be based on any of Tolkien's other works, such as The Silmarillion, which has been the inspiration for The Rings of Power.

What is certainly an interesting possibility is that of focusing on certain specific characters. Given the abundance of characters and stories in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books, it is entirely possible that new Lord of the Rings movies may focus on one of those characters. While this may entail much-beloved and well-known characters like Aragorn or Legolas, the new Lord of the Rings films may choose to focus on lesser-known side characters or even those characters from the books that were not present in the original movies. Either way, it creates quite a bit of competition for The Rings of Power season 2.

Rings Of Power Season 2 Is Confirmed

While Warner Bros' plans may have cast a shadow over The Rings of Power, the streaming series is still moving full steam ahead with season 2. Filming for the second season began in October 2022, and it is expected to be released in early 2024. Amazon has planned five seasons of the Lord of the Rings prequel, with a cumulative budget of over $1 billion, but the last three seasons haven't been confirmed and will likely depend on streaming engagement numbers for The Rings of Power season 2. The first season was one of Amazon Prime's most-viewed shows during its release period but still may not have been a big enough success to justify Amazon's heavy investment.

The success of future seasons of The Rings of Power and Warner Bros' new Lord of the Rings movie may both be dependent on how much public appetite there is for more Middle-Earth content, especially divorced from the story and characters of Tolkien's best-known work. A theatrical movie may be more appealing to an audience looking for epic fantasy than a streaming series, no matter how expensive, but it's also possible that the two series could coexist and even complement each other. Recent instability in Amazon's TV division as well as Warner Bros-Discovery mean that it's hard to predict the future with any certainty. The one things that seem clear is that Hollywood hasn't taken its last trip to the world of The Lord of the Rings.