Lord of the Rings writer reveals the one Tolkien book she’s desperate to adapt

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings legendarium stretches before (and beyond) the Fellowship and the One Ring, and there’s one book crying out for an adaptation, according to one of the trilogy’s writers.

This weekend, The War of the Rohirrim will arrive in cinemas, a new movie exploring uncharted territory in the past of Middle-earth. It follows Hèra, the daughter of Helm Hammerhand (who gave Helm’s Deep its name), and a pivotal conflict against the Dunlendings.

It’s set 180 years before the events of Peter Jackson’s iconic trilogy, and it could be the first of several anime features expanding the world of Lord of the Rings, if Philippa Boyens gets her way.

However, there’s one elusive book she’d love to get the rights to – and it’ll be familiar to Rings of Power fans.

Lord of the Rings writer wants the rights to The Silmarillion

During her interview with Dexerto to mark War of the Rohirrim’s release, we asked Boyens to pick one Lord of the Rings story she’d love to see an adaptation of.

“Oh,  I might be giving away too much there,” she initially said, teasing The Hunt for Gollum and the franchise’s big-screen future.

“Of course, the rights to The Silmarillion… it’s just a masterful piece of mythology. It almost feels like history to me.”

The Silmarillion was released in 1977, edited, partly written, and posthumously by Tolkien’s son Christopher. It spans millennia, chronicling the literal creation of the world, the Years of the Lamps and Trees, and the events of the First Age (including the Elves’ war against Morgoth), as well as Númenor’s woes with Valinor in the Second Age and events stretching into the Sixth Age.

To be clear, making a single movie based on The Silmarillion would be a bit like adapting the Bible – it isn’t feasible, but it has several stories that could make for extraordinary films.

I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t Rings of Power based on The Silmarillion?” Officially, no, it isn’t. The Tolkien estate has never sold the rights to the book, so Amazon’s series (just like Jackson’s films) is based on the Lord of the Rings novels, The Hobbit, and their appendices – that’s it.

What’s next after The Hunt for Gollum?

New Line Cinema

Whether or not Tolkien’s estate will sell the rights remains to be seen, but Boyens has a “huge wish list. I think there’s a lot of tales that you could tell.”

“Interestingly, now I’m obsessed with anime. So now I’ve got a wish list of anime films. And I think I’d love to go back further and further and further and go even more historical – sort of almost more primitively into some of the very early tales involving certain monsters, shall we say?” she teased.

“I would love to do that. We’ve always tried to be incredibly respectful of Professor Tolkien and the estate, so I think that’s going to have to be a question that you ask them.”

Next year, filming is expected to kick off on The Hunt for Gollum, with Sir Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf and Viggo Mortensen expected to reprise his role as Aragorn. There’s at least one more movie in development, but Boyens, Jackson, and Fran Walsh still haven’t decided what it’ll be.

“There’s several options for a second story…  The Hunt for Gollum is one movie, but there is a second potential movie that will almost definitely involve Gandalf,” she explained.

 ”But we’re still playing around. We’ve got a number of options for stories that we might want to tell. I can’t tell you, because truthfully, it hasn’t been completely decided yet.

“ Let’s get Hunt for Gollum underway – which we are in the process of doing. I was just up in Oxford and went and had a look around some of the places that Professor Tolkien would have wandered over, and that was just magical.”

Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim hits cinemas on December 13. In the meantime, find out what’s happening with Rings of Power Season 3 and check out our list of the best movies of 2024.