It’s been 20 years since Return of the King debuted and nine years since The Battle of the Five Armies came out. Now, Lord of the Rings fans are getting a ton of new Tolkien content all at once. Amazon Prime Video’s The Rings of Power series came out in 2023; The War of the Rohirrim animated movie is slated for 2024, and Warner Bros. just announced that it’s locked in deals for new LOTR movies.

At first glance, that’s an awesome development, but it’s actually giving a lot of LOTR fans pause. Everyone was excited going into The Rings of Power, but it was a disappointment for a lot of people. While parts of the series were outstanding, some decisions just baffled viewers, and many have not held back their criticism. With that in mind, Warner Bros. has a tall task on its hands, but it’s already correcting Rings of Power‘s most embarrassing mistake by including Peter Jackson.

Rings of Power Ignoring Peter Jackson Makes No Sense

The Rings of Power had plenty of mistakes, and viewers were quick to point them out. A lot of the dialogue was next-level cringy; the pacing was annoying, and there were so many lore mistakes that diehard fans were left doing countless double-takes. Yet, The Rings of Power‘s biggest mistake might have been hiring first-time showrunners, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. That’s not a personal indictment against them, and some of what they did was very good — but their lack of experience was noticeable.

The thing is, Amazon Studios had a perfect solution. Peter Jackson, who directed the LOTR trilogy, was available. In fact, he was contacted at the beginning of the development process before Amazon Studios totally ghosted him. Jackson’s familiarity with the Lord of the Rings franchise and adapting it to the screen would have been invaluable to The Rings of Power. Even if he wasn’t the actual showrunner, he could have been a consultant or something. Instead, Payne and McKay went in alone, and many fans were disappointed, even if they’ve planned to course-correct in Season 2.

WB’s LOTR Movies Will Correct Rings of Power’s Mistake

Seeing The Rings of Power‘s poor reception didn’t dissuade Warner Bros. from striking a deal with Embracer Group AB and New Line to produce more Lord of the Rings movies. And why should it? There are a ton of stories in Tolkien’s material that the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies never touched on. So, a dive back into that franchise is full of potential. Not to mention, Warner Bros. can distance itself from The Rings of Power because the latter has limited rights to Tolkien’s material and is only licensed on the small screen.

Besides all of that, Warner Bros. has already corrected Rings of Power‘s Peter Jackson mistake. Apparently, the writer-director is being kept abreast of all developments. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that he will direct all or any of the movies, but it does mean that he’ll be involved — and the more, the better. That alone is an improvement from The Rings of Power. Why a new series would actively ignore someone with so much expertise, experience, and success is baffling. So, it makes perfect sense why Warner Bros has already told LOTR fans that it won’t be making the same mistake.

Will The LOTR Movies Be Connected To Rings of Power?

Besides all of that, Warner Bros. has already corrected Rings of Power‘s Peter Jackson mistake. Apparently, the writer-director is being kept abreast of all developments. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that he will direct all or any of the movies, but it does mean that he’ll be involved — and the more, the better. That alone is an improvement from The Rings of Power. Why a new series would actively ignore someone with so much expertise, experience, and success is baffling. So, it makes perfect sense why Warner Bros has already told LOTR fans that it won’t be making the same mistake.

Will The LOTR Movies Be Connected To Rings of Power?

Unlike Rings of Power, Warner Bros.’ upcoming Lord of the Rings films may be connected to Peter Jackson’s original films. The next project on the slate is The War of the Rohirrim, an animated film set over two hundred years before the events of the Lord of the Rings. Based on a story from J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices, the film is slated for release later this year. Even with the large span of time between this story and that of Lord of the Rings, there is strong evidence that the two will be connected canonically. Not only is Peter Jackson involved in the filmmaking, but Miranda Otto is also set to reprise her role as Eowyn in the upcoming film.

The involvement of both Jackson and Otto would at least imply that The War of the Rohirrim is meant to take place in the same universe as Warner Bros.’ Lord of the Rings franchise. This should be exciting for fans of the original films, which are still upheld as some of the best book-to-film adaptations of all time. With a story taken directly from the mind of Tolkien, it seems more than likely that the Lord of the Rings franchise has learned from the mistakes Amazon made in The Rings of Power.