Future Lord Of The Rings Movies Have A Major Title Problem (Including War Of The Rohirrim)

The War of the Rohirrim and the other upcoming movies in the Lord of the Rings franchise are facing a major title problem. The current onscreen incarnation of the Lord of the Rings franchise began with Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy, based on the work of the same name by fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien, following the hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood) and his companions on a quest across Middle-earth to destroy the dangerously powerful One Ring by throwing it into the fires of Mordor. Jackson followed those movies with a new trilogy based on Tolkien’s earlier Middle-earth novel The Hobbit.

As the franchise has expanded, it has moved farther away from the core source material. For instance, the 2022 Prime Video prequel show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power extrapolates its storylines from content in the original book, but especially its appendices. Those appendices also provide the source for the upcoming animated movie The War of the Rohirrim, which follows future Helm’s Deep namesake Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) and will kickstart a new run of Lord of the Rings movies in theaters.

Lord Of The Rings Movies Will Have A Misleading Name (Because Of Sauron)

While the upcoming Lord of The Rings movies are said to be based on elements from the original books and The Hobbit rather than related works, they will nevertheless face a major title problem. Because they likely won’t directly involve the story of the Dark Lord Sauron, who has been featured in the original trilogies and The Rings of Power, the titles will technically be misnomers. This is a problem that is already facing The War of the Rohirrim, which details a battle between Rohan and a Dunlending army that features little to no involvement from Sauron himself.

The reason these titles would be misnomers is that Sauron is the titular “lord of the rings.” The “one ring to rule them all” at the center of LOTR was created by Sauron and holds sway over the other rings of power. Those rings were distributed among the races of Middle-earth, but all drew their power from Sauron’s One Ring. Should the Dark Lord not be a major fixture of an upcoming movie’s plot, or should it take place after the destruction of the One Ring, the Lord of the Rings title would technically no longer apply to the story.

The Lord Of The Rings Won’t (And Shouldn’t) Change Its Name

It’s ultimately unlikely that future installments will avoid using the Lord of the Rings title despite the canonical conflict. The brand name is too strong, and audiences may be unaware of future movies’ connection to the franchise if it isn’t included. While removing the LOTR title worked for the Hobbit trilogy, the original Hobbit novel is well-known enough that it didn’t cause issues. The precedent set by The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will most likely be what sticks going forward, which poses in-universe issues but nevertheless helps the franchise in terms of overall brand clarity.