The Lord of the Rings is at a major crossroads. When New Line Cinema released Peter Jackson's trilogy, it was met with rave reviews because it's not easy to capture the magic of Tolkien. Yet, Jackson did just that, and the trilogy is still one of the best of all time. Unfortunately, The Hobbit trilogy didn't have the same success, and Amazon's The Rings of Power was another controversial entry. But, in an unexpected move, Warner Bros. announced that it greenlit more Lord of the Rings movies.
There's a ton of story potential in The Lord of the Rings, so the announcement makes sense. But with the steady degradation of the on-screen brand, fans are admittedly skeptical. With that in mind, Warner Bros. has to proceed with caution. The thing is, Warner Bros. might find a course of action by looking at the mistakes that Disney made with the Star Wars sequels.
The Star Wars Sequels Were Divisive
When Disney announced the Star Wars sequels, the fanbase was ripe for new content because it had been a decade since the last film. Then, the marketing was on-point, and fans were ecstatic -- until the movies actually came out. Unfortunately, the trilogy wasn't what most fans wanted, and there were a lot of reasons for the controversy that it caused. An obvious lack of originality and cohesion soured the films for some fans, but the biggest issue was a general lack of reverence for its source material.
The Last Jedi was especially divisive. It turned Princess Leia into Marry Poppins. Then, Luke Skywalker went from a symbol of hope into an old curmudgeon. Granted, catering to every fan theory isn't good, either. However, Rian Johnson seemingly approached the movie with the intent of challenging the fanbase.
What Lord of the Rings Can Learn From Disney's Star Wars Mistakes
With Lord of the Rings fans already on high alert, Warner Bros. has to be careful. The company doesn't want to do what Star Wars did with its sequel trilogy. So, here are a few things that need to be considered. For one, the new movies can't be divisive. Star Wars divided its fanbase with The Last Jedi, and The Rings of Power nearly did the same with its repeated disregard for the Lord of the Rings canon. On the heels of that, the new movies need to play it safe and allow the fandom to settle with something everyone will like.
What does that mean, exactly? For starters, the Warner Bros. movies need to treat legacy characters with respect. The films' plot and period have not yet been revealed, but if they were to crossover with the original trilogy, the spirit of certain characters needs to be maintained. And if that can't happen, the legacy characters should be left out. Not seeing a classic character would be disappointing, but it would be better than trashing what fans think of that character. In particular, that means avoiding recasting. It messes with continuity and also shows a disregard for pre-established material.
On another note, the Star Wars sequels (and Disney's inner turmoil) left Lucasfilm's movie plans in shambles. Since The Rise of Skywalker was released, there have been numerous movie announcements, and almost all of them have been shelved, forgotten or delayed. That has been beyond annoying for fans of the galaxy far, far away. With that in mind, Warner Bros. better gets its act together before trying to sell its plans to the Lord of the Rings fanbase. Being wishy-washy and having to change plans wouldn't give fans much confidence, which is what the franchise needs as it starts a new era of films.