Battle of the Five Armies to be Last Tolkien Film

Part of the appeal of the upcoming Hobbit movie, called The Battle of the Five Armies, is that this is the last chapter in the Middle-Earth saga. Now, as director Peter Jackson points out, that’s a very literal interpretation of how things are playing out.

For the record, this isn’t about how there are no more stories to tell from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien, it’s more much of a legal issue…

“The Tolkien estate owns the writings of Professor Tolkien – The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were sold by Professor Tolkien in the late 60s…the film rights. So they are the only two works of his that have ever been sold. Without the cooperation of the Tolkien estate, there can’t be more films.”

Now obviously things can change, but it’s also been documented how the Tolkien estate have held onto the rights for the other parts of Middle-Earth mythology. Most importantly the Similarion. So who knows what might happen.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, comes out on December 17th