The Lord of the Rings franchise is a classic lore of good vs evil which follows heroes who embark on a perilous quest to save the world from darkness. It is all thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien’s creativity that curated a detailed world with diverse mythologies. While the novel series gained quite a bit of attention, it is Peter Jackson who put the stories in the cinematic format to reach wider audiences.
And yet, Jackson’s adaptations are far from being true to the source material. In particular, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) is one film that often disappoints book readers due to its non-coherent sequences.
The Lord of the Rings Author Commented on The Two Towers Timeline!
In his foreword to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) author, J.R.R. Tolkien reflected on alterations that director Peter Jackson did in his movie adaptations, which the author didn’t like.
One such alteration was maintaining consistent sequences, especially referring to The Two Towers (2002). The author’s second LOTR book follows Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring as they face new challenges in their quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron.
The event is sub-divided into two major timelines – half of the narrative following Frodo and Samwise Gamgee on their journey to Mount Doom in Mordor.
Whereas, the other half focuses on the remaining members of the Fellowship, including Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they resist Saruman and Sauron’s armies.
More or less, he presented those timelines in isolated chunks. He emphasized how these two timelines needed to stay separate to maintain coherence in the series. He stated via Looper,
“It is essential that these two branches should each be treated in coherent sequence. Both to render them intelligible as a story, and because they are totally different in tone and scenery. Jumlbing them together entirely destroys these things.”
His criticism was understandable as his storytelling narrative let readers focus on a specific group of characters at a particular time. Whereas, the film director took a different approach in the last two movie installments: The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
Both movies witnessed constant shifts in timelines between Frodo and Sam’s journey and the rest of the Fellowship members. Despite deviating from what the author originally did, Jackson’s adaptations remained coherent, making it an intriguing project. Nonetheless, the director’s approach spawned a strong franchise that is set to continue its legacy with new projects.
Warner Bros Greenlights New The Lord of the Rings Projects
Warner Bros. Discovery is returning to Middle-earth once again as CEO David Zaslav announced that a new Lord of the Rings movie is “now in the early stages of script development,” as per THR.
During the first-quarter earnings conference call this Thursday, Zaslav revealed that the studio currently anticipates that it will be “releasing in 2026” and will “explore storylines yet to be told.”
Among the projects, the studio has released the details of its first project which is titled, Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which will focus on the enigmatic character, Gollum. Andy Serkis, who is known for playing Gollum in the original trilogy, is set to return.
He is also going to direct the project whereas trilogy director Jackson, and his longtime writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens “will be involved every step of the way.” The writing partners are set to write the screenplay.
As for the original film trilogy, it is set to return in theatres, remastered and extended.
