New Lord of the Rings movies are in the works

Warner Bros. is going there and back again. 

The studio is set to make more movies in the Lord of the Rings franchise, as confirmed Thursday by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav in an investor call. Warner Bros. has entered into a multi-year agreement with Embracer Group AB, the rights holders, to develop the feature films. 

In a statement, Warner Bros. film executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy said that "for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies" of Lord of the Rings movies made by director Peter Jackson, "the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film." They continued that the "opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor." 

No further details were provided about the new movies, though a statement said the agreement covers multiple feature films. This is all separate from the ongoing streaming series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. That show is made by Amazon, which dropped a reported $250 million on the television rights. But The Rings of Power is mostly limited to exploring events that occurred in the Second Age of Middle-earth, prior to the feature films and main events of the books. 

Warner Bros. previously announced an anime movie called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which is set for a 2024 release, though the new films will presumably be live-action. It wasn't immediately clear if Jackson, who concluded his Hobbit prequel trilogy in 2014, will have any involvment. But this will be another huge franchise for Warner Bros. Discovery to expand after Zaslav expressed interest in developing more Harry Potter movies with author J.K. Rowling.