Peter Jackson has been quoted as saying that his team and Warner Bros. have been talking with younger members of the Tolkien family about licensing additional books for films.
Jackson, who directed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, named The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales in the reported Cannes remarks. He said he wanted to move beyond The Lord of the Rings appendices and portrayed Christopher Tolkien as opposed to filming those works, while describing younger family members involved in the estate as more willing to discuss licensing.
The rights context
The Tolkien Estate’s undated FAQ says it has “no current plans” for a film of The Silmarillion and is unable to entertain inquiries about motion-picture rights to Tolkien’s works. The page gives no clear date for those statements and elsewhere describes Amazon’s television series as forthcoming.
In an announcement dated February 23, 2023, Embracer said Middle-earth Enterprises, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures had concluded a multi-year agreement for films based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. That announcement does not document a grant of adaptation rights to The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales.
Amazon’s separate television production, The Rings of Power, has also operated under restrictions on its source material. In 2022, co-showrunner J.D. Payne said it held rights to The Hobbit, the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings and the appendices, but not The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. His description concerned that television production’s rights.
The announced film projects
As of May 17, 2026, Warner Bros. had scheduled The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum for December 17, 2027. Andy Serkis is directing and returning as Gollum, with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens producing.
Boyens has described the story as taking place after Bilbo’s birthday party and before the Mines of Moria, with events presented from Gollum’s perspective.
The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is planned to follow The Hunt for Gollum, with Stephen Colbert attached as a writer. Jackson said Colbert pitched the idea after rereading Tolkien’s book over Christmas, proposing material omitted from the original films.
The project draws on chapters three through eight of The Fellowship of the Ring, including the hobbits’ encounters with Tom Bombadil and a Barrow-wight.
The books at issue
The Silmarillion, published in 1977 after J.R.R. Tolkien’s death, begins with a creation myth and recounts the wars of the First Age. Much of the book is set in Beleriand, providing the ancient background to The Lord of the Rings.
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980, collects stories and other writings with varying degrees of completion. In his introduction, Christopher Tolkien distinguished its disparate texts from the cohesive narrative he had sought to assemble in The Silmarillion.
