Embracer Group Acquires IP Rights to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’
Media giant Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the entire IP catalogue and worldwide rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
It’s been hard to keep track of all the movements (big and small) surrounding the rights to LOTR and other pieces of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth universe. Of course, Amazon has already unloaded more than $1 billion in cash to kickstart an era of TV productions telling new (and previously vaguely described) stories that fill the gaps between The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — The Rings of Power arrives in less than two weeks. Meanwhile, video game rights have been all over the place with WB Interactive barely doing anything new besides its two Shadow of Mordor/War titles, Daedalic Entertainment struggling to get Gollum to the finish line, and EA recently recovering the rights to make new LOTR video games that (hopefully) will land close to the all-timers they delivered in the early 2000s… once they’re done pushing out a mobile game no one asked for.
We had learned about The Saul Zaentz Company putting up for sale the transmedia rights to Tolkien’s meatiest works back in February, so this doesn’t entirely come as a surprise. However, it’s been astounding to see Embracer sweeping in and running away with the prize. The Swedish video game and media holding company has been making some impressive moves over the last decade, mostly sticking to sizable video game acquisitions (such as the recent “rescue” of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex from Square Enix), but it appears they’re ready to take some big swings in other industries, as the Lord of the Rings package includes rights to new films built around Tolkien’s most famous literary works. Lars Wingefors, Founder and Group CEO Embracer Group, expressed his excitement in a brief statement:
“I am truly excited to have The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, one of the world’s most epic fantasy franchises join the Embracer family, opening up more transmedia opportunities including synergies across our global group. I am thrilled to see what lies in the future for this IP with Freemode and Asmodee as a start within the group. Going forward, we also look forward to collaborating with both existing and new external licensees of our increasingly stronger IP portfolio.”
If we examine closely the press release straight from Embracer, it seems like their main interests are still video games, board games, and merch. Nonetheless, there’s also an explicit interest in exploring new film productions that could be spin-offs of sorts, following well-known characters from LOTR and The Hobbit beyond the stories we all know and love. It’s important to underline, though, that Embracer-owned Middle-earth Enterprises would still need to partner with film studios to get any new projects off the ground, so New Line Cinema — which has an animated Lord of the Rings prequel set for release in 2024 — could be sticking around as the main creative force behind Tolkien-related theatrical productions. Same goes for brand-new video games; Embracer owns several more than capable companies and studios that could work on the property, but Middle-earth Enterprises will remain collaborating with external licensees.
Stay tuned for more news on the (increasingly busy) future of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
