Warner Bros ‘Lord of The Rings’ Movieverse: Everything You Need To Know

November 28, 2022 by Mimi Phan

Remember the feeling you got when you first came upon the Lord of the Rings universe? J.R.R. Tolkien gave us a masterpiece, and Peter Jackson brought it to life in a way that only he could. Decades and multiple awards later, Lord of the Rings remains one of the most beloved film franchises in history.

So, you can only imagine the excitement that erupted when Warner Bros. confirmed that they would be rebooting the entire franchise via an NFT collection. Only this time, they’re not restricting the series to places like Gondor, The Shire, and other locations that the original movies showed. With this Web 3 movie experience NFT collection, we could be exploring the entirety of Middle-earth, and perhaps even more.

Are you already on the edge of your seat? Good. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about the new Lord of the Rings movieverse and what it means for fans.

The Lord Of The Rings Movieverse: What Is It?

The Lord of the Rings movieverse refers to the entire Web 3 digital experience of the LotR franchise. Warner Bros. announced the project in October 2022, and it will make them officially the first major movie studio to sell a movie franchise as a non-fungible token (NFT) bundle.

Why Is The Lord Of The Rings Movieverse Important?

Over the past few years, big names in the film space have embraced the idea of either releasing movies or sharing movie-related content as NFTs.

While most of the action has come from independent filmmakers, the fact that a studio as big as Warner Bros. is embracing NFTs shows that they – as well as Web 3 and other new-age technologies – have a significant role to play in transforming Hollywood. With the new NFT collection, fans of the Lord of the Rings franchise get to engage with the movie in a new and more interactive way. They also get additional content that wasn’t available in the first set of films.

Who Is This Collection For?

NFTs are for everyone. Regardless of where you are or how you love to interact with content, NFTs can transform your experience. It doesn’t matter if you’re a die-hard Middle-earth stan or just a newbie to the wonderful universe created by Tolkien – as long as you’re interested in the movies and would like a new way to experience them, then this Warner Bros. NFT movieverse is for you.

One Collection To Rule Them All

As part of this project, Warner Bros. has partnered with Eluvio – a Web 3 company looking to transform the creation and distribution of digital content. Both companies will design and develop NFTs of the Lord of the Rings movies and distribute them to fans.

Each NFT in this collection will feature a 4K copy of the Lord of the Rings movies, along with the following extras:

• Behind-the-scenes footage, featuring cut scenes
• Additional stills
• Exclusive assets inspired by the movies

The first batch of NFTs in the collection will represent the first movie in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. Warner Bros. believes that these NFTs will kickstart the WB Movieverse, allowing them to bring the iconic movies to an even broader audience base.

Fellowship NFTs will feature a 4K Ultra High-Definition (UHD) version of the movie. The difference, however, is that while the original movie had a runtime of 2 hours and 58 minutes, this version will run for 3 hours and 48 minutes. This means that buyers get an additional 50 minutes of footage that has never been seen before.

Two NFT Tiers in One

Even better, Warner Bros. will offer eight hours of bonus footage and commentary from Peter Jackson.  As the studio announced, the NFT experience will feature two tiers:

1. A Premiere Mystery Edition

Warner Bros. is selling a total of 10,000 NFTs in the Premiere Mystery Edition for $30 each, and buyers will get an extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring. They will also get an interactive themed navigation experience, image galleries featuring stills from the movie, and augmented reality (AR) collectibles.

Each of the Premiere Mystery Edition NFTs will also feature one of three interactive, location-based navigation menus from a location in the movie. Fans will get navigation menus for The Shire, Rivendell, or the Mines of Moria – three significant locations in the plot of The Fellowship of the Ring.

2. The Premier Epic Edition

In this edition, Warner Bros. will sell 999 NFTs priced at $100 each. Buyers will get all the benefits available in the Premiere Mystery Edition, but instead of getting navigation menus for one of three locations, they’ll get all three. The edition also includes additional interactive image galleries and other benefits.

Awesome! So What Now?

The first iteration of the Warner Bros. NFT movieverse is already live!

Warner Bros. released the NFTs for The Fellowship of the Ring on October 21^st 2022, and fans can buy them to enjoy everything in the collection. You can also check out the movieverse website to check out the trailer for the first Lord of the Rings movie.

Warner Bros. and Eluvio have also confirmed that the NFT movie experiences for the other two films – The Two Towers and The Return of the King – are in the works and coming soon.

So far, there are no updates on the company’s plans to release NFTs for the other movies in this cinematic universe such as The Hobbit and the new Amazon Prime show, Rings of Power. However, depending on the success of the original LotR NFTs, there’s no reason why those shouldn’t be in the works as well.

Featured image by Ergo Zakki on Unsplash