Where Tales of the Shire fits in The Lord of the Rings timeline

In an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Tales of the Shire developers at Wētā Workshop discussed where the game sits in the official Lord of the Rings timelines and teased plenty of Easter eggs to look out for throughout the game.

Tales of the Shire is a brand new Lord of the Rings game set to be released on March 25, 2025. Unlike most action-oriented adaptations based on the iconic fantasy franchise, Tales of the Shire is a cozy life sim that allows fans to fully immerse themselves in the Shire and embody the Hobbit lifestyle.

Wētā Workshop being a New Zealand-based development team, the studio was very mindful of ensuring the game fit within the official canon timeline of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

In our exclusive interview, devs revealed when Tales of the Shire is set within the franchise’s canon timeline and even teased what kinds of Easter eggs fans should look out for.

When is Tales of the Shire set?

Calliope Ryder, the Lead Producer for Tales of the Shire, noted that the game is set directly between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

“This sits between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so that gives us a lot of fun things to work with. Bilbo has returned from his adventures, but Frodo hasn’t yet set off. That space in time is a really cool place to play in. It means we’ve got a lot of really cool Easter eggs we can pop in there.”

The game is set between the two major stories from the franchise, so getting the correct tone was pivotal. Ryder explained that, rather than capturing the “grim and dark” style of most other Lord of the Rings media, Tales of the Shire focuses more on the Hobbit’s ‘ “fairytale” nature.

“It is clearly written for children. That tone shift is what we wanted to capture; this is The Hobbit. The reference material for us is just the books, only Tolkien’s work. So we really leaned into that tone when we were creating how the world would feel,” Ryder explained.

Easter Eggs in Tales of the Shire

Whenever a new entry in a beloved franchise is released, Easter eggs are often littered throughout. These pockets of lore and information are a great way to display the development team’s expertise further while also making players feel fully immersed in the experience.

Naturally, Dexerto asked Wētā if fans can expect any Easter eggs, whether big or small, to be featured throughout Tales of the Shire. Of course, there are many nuggets they didn’t want to spoil, but one Easter egg that they were happy to discuss revolved around certain fauna in the game, with one particular plant and its origins they believe “very few people are going to get.”

“Kingsfoil is the plant Aragorn uses to heal Frodo when he gets stabbed by the Nazgûl. That’s something that in the Fellowship, [Tolkien] talks a lot about where that comes from and how it got brought through by men and planted in different space,” Ryder said.

“So we get to incorporate Kingsfoil as a place in Tales of the Shire. The great thing about that is very few people are going to get that reference, but the few people that are hardcore fans, they’ll understand what that means, just being able to include stuff like that is really special.”

Ryder further noted that she is “really excited to see fans go through and find and discuss those because we sure discussed the hell out of them.”

And while the game will largely be centered around the Hobbits that reside in the Shire, this doesn’t mean other races from Lord of the Rings won’t be appearing throughout the game. 

“One of the things, at this time, dwarves were more often frequenting the Great East Road that runs through Bywater which is where our game is set. Representing the outer world in this tiny protected place. It’s high fantasy, low stakes,” added Ryder.

Tales of the Shire will be released on March 25, 2025.