The original Lord of the Rings trilogy started with The Fellowship of the Ring, which came out in 2001. It starred Elijah Wood as Frodo, a Hobbit who is tasked with destroying the One Ring, created by the dark lord Sauron. On his journey, he is accompanied by another faithful Hobbit, Samwise Gamgee, played by Sean Astin, as well as a slew of colorful characters including the Ranger, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen).
Subsequent movies, The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) continued the story of Frodo Baggins as he faced obstacles on his road to destroying the One Ring. The movies were all massive hits at the box office. The Fellowship of the Ring earned $868.3 million worldwide, while The Two Towers and The Return of the King took in $923 million and $1.1 billion, respectively. The films also starred Sir Ian McKellen as the Wizard Gandalf, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, John Rhys-Davies as Gimil, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and Sean Bean as Boromir.
The Hobbit Movies Expanded the Story of The Lord of the Rings
Although in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original book, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, takes place before the events in the The Lord of the Rings series, Jackson’s The Hobbit movies were released about 10 years after his original trilogy. Jackson also chose to do three movies for the one book as opposed to three movies for the three Lord of the Rings novels.
The Hobbit trilogy starts with 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, starring Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, who reluctantly gets recruited as a “burglar” to help a group of Dwarves reclaim their treasure from the dragon, Smaug. Richard Armitage stars Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the company of Dwarves seeking their rightful treasure. McKellen also reprises his role as Gandalf for the movies, which also include 2013’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and 2014’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
It may not have been as well received by fans as the original trilogy, but The Hobbit movies were successful at the box office. An Unexpected Journey grossed just over $1 billion worldwide while The Desolation of Smaug earned $958.4 million and The Battle of the Five Armies made $956 million globally.
Fans of Middle-earth will also be able to see a new animated movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim when it hits theaters on December 13. The movie takes place between the time of the Jackson trilogy and The Rings of Power and is described by Warner Bros. as “a groundbreaking journey back to Middle-earth through the eyes of legendary director Kenji Kamiyama.”
The War of the Rohirrim stars Brian Cox (Succession) as the voice of the movie’s main character, Helm Hammerhand, a prominent King of Rohan. Miranda Otto stars as the voice of Éowyn, reprising the role she played in both The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
The Rings of Power Seasons 1 and 2 Are Still Streaming
Prime Video will remain the home of its original series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which finished its second season on October 3. A third season of the series has not yet been confirmed by the streamer.
