‘The Lord of the Rings’ Director Peter Jackson Could Finally Enter Tolkien’s Forbidden Chapter
For years, one major part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world seemed almost impossible to bring to the big screen. Peter Jackson turned The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit into massive movie franchises, but there was always one major piece of Middle-earth that remained out of his reach: The Silmarillion.
That could finally be changing. Jackson has revealed that talks are taking place between his team, Warner Bros., and the Tolkien Estate about getting the rights to The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. The news was reported by Deadline after Jackson spoke about the situation at the Cannes Film Festival, where he received an honorary Palme d’Or.
Nothing has been officially agreed yet, but the fact that these discussions are happening is a big deal for Tolkien fans. The Silmarillion has been treated very differently from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for decades, largely because of how carefully Tolkien’s family has protected the material.
The book is not a traditional novel in the same way as The Lord of the Rings. Instead, it covers thousands of years of Middle-earth history and explores events from the earliest days of the world. It includes the creation of Arda, the rise of Morgoth, the wars of the First Age and stories involving some of the most important characters in Tolkien’s mythology.
Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, played a major role in keeping these works away from Hollywood. After his father died in 1973, Christopher spent years organizing and publishing his unfinished writings. He was also strongly against allowing The Silmarillion and related material to be turned into movies.
That position began to change after Christopher left his role as a director of the Tolkien Estate in 2017. He died in 2020 at the age of 95. Since then, other members of the Tolkien family have become involved with the estate, and Jackson now says his side and Warner Bros. are speaking with them about possible rights.
Jackson also made it clear that he would like to have more Tolkien material to work with. According to Deadline, the filmmaker talked about wanting to move beyond the appendices and find something more substantial. That could potentially mean exploring stories that take place long before the events of The Lord of the Rings.
There is a huge amount of material available if a deal is reached. The Silmarillion includes stories about Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, as well as major tales involving characters such as Beren and Lúthien. The Children of Húrin and The Fall of Gondolin are also connected to this much earlier period of Middle-earth.
Some of these stories could potentially work as their own movies. Others could require a much larger series of films because of the enormous amount of history and mythology involved. Either way, adapting this material would be very different from making another Lord of the Rings sequel.
Jackson would also have plenty of competition and complications to consider. Warner Bros. is already expanding Middle-earth with projects such as The Hunt for Gollum, which Andy Serkis is directing. The animated movie The War of the Rohirrim also showed that the studio is willing to explore different parts of Tolkien’s world.
Amazon is separately working with Second Age material for The Rings of Power, so any future Silmarillion project would have to stay within the rights available to Jackson and Warner Bros. That makes the current negotiations especially important.
For now, fans should not expect an announcement that a Silmarillion movie is officially happening. Jackson has only confirmed that discussions are underway. There is still a long way to go before anything reaches theaters.
Still, the door is open in a way it never seemed to be before. After decades of The Silmarillion being considered almost impossible to adapt, Peter Jackson may finally have a chance to return to Middle-earth and explore the stories that came long before Frodo, Aragorn and the Fellowship ever entered the picture.
Which part of The Silmarillion would you most want to see adapted?
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