The Lord of the Rings franchise is worth billions of dollars. It's one of the few properties that's seen success both with its live-action adaptations and video games based on the material. Because of this, fans are expecting studios to fight tooth and nail for the rights to the keys to the next set of The Lord of the Rings games.
According to Variety, the current property holder, Zentz Co., plans to auction off Tolkien's holdings for a hefty sum that's expected to go up to a couple of billions. The sales process is expected to kick off this week, but it's not clear yet which studio ponied up the money for it.
Warner Bros. had a field day throughout the 2010s when it gained the rights to publish Middle-earth video games. Their most successful outing is easily Monolith Productions' pair of Middle-Earth: Shadow games. The two-part series, which started with Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor in 2014 and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War in 2017, sold and sat well with audiences and critics, respectively.
Unfortunately, with Monolith now busy applying its patented Nemesis system to the upcoming Wonder Woman video game and WB busy with DCEU games like Gotham Knights as well as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it appears that the multimedia giant isn't too keen on going back for a trip to Mordor anytime soon.
Interestingly enough, despite the sale, Warner Bros. still has part ownership of the Lord of the Rings license. In particular, Warner Bros. still owns the rights to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy. This means that whoever ends up forking billions of the rights to make Lord of the Rings video games and films will have to come up with an entirely separate version of Middle-earth.
Having said that, we're curious to find out who will buy the rights from Zentz Co. Perhaps Amazon Prime Video will double down on its investment in Endor after the positive reception to initial glimpses of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? What about Sony? There are rumblings that the console manufacturer still isn't done spending money after buying Bungie following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Speaking of, what about Microsoft? With the entirety of Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media at their disposal, we're sure Microsoft Gaming's newly-minted CEO, Phil Spencer, can come up with something.
Ultimately, all we can do for now is to speculate and wait for Zentz Co. and the buyer to announce the completion of the deal. The good news here is that the wait won't be for long. Just don't expect the buyer to reveal details about its plans for Lord of the Rings immediately.
