The Embracer Group, among other things the parent company of THQ Nordic, is extremely lively, there is no other way to express it. The Swedish media giant has now incorporated Middle-earth, completely.
That’s a cracker. Swedish Embracer Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary Freemode, has one Agreement to Acquire Middle-earth Enterprises met, a division of The Saul Zaentz Company.
Middle-Earth Enterprises owns worldwide rights in motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandise, theme parks and stage productions related to JRR Tolkien’s fantasy literary works The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as the corresponding rights to other Middle-earth-related literary works , authorized by the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins.
The Saul Zaentz Company acquired its rights from the heirs and estate of JRR Tolkien and the publisher HarperCollins, which holds the publishing rights to JRR Tolkien’s literary works. The Saul Zaentz Company first acquired the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in 1976 under an agreement with United Artists to produce an animated version of The Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi. In 1998, The Saul Zaentz Company licensed New Line Cinema to produce director Peter Jackson’s live-action trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
If the sale goes ahead as planned, Embracer Group will secure, among other things, financial interests in the announced Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, which will premiere on September 2, 2022, as well as the animated film The Lord of the Rings Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, due out in 2024, on Electronic Arts’ mobile game The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, but also on Daedalic’s upcoming Gollum game.
Embracer Group apparently has big plans for the brand. The press release states: “Further opportunities include exploring additional films based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of JRR Tolkien and providing new opportunities for fans to discover these explore fictional world through merchandising and other experiences.”
How deep Embracer Group has to dig into the petty cash for this is not mentioned in the corresponding announcement. According to estimates, the Middle-earth rights are valued at around two billion US dollars. Embracer already had a reference to Middle-earth. Embracer subsidiary Asmodee is a long-time licensee of the Middle-earth franchises and has published more than a dozen board and card games based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Gameplay from The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was presented for the first time at NACON Connect.
