I mean, those rights moving back to WB and New Line is good, we all know the LotR trilogy is stellar, and even the Hobbit movies, while not on the same level are still good as well, but I’m not sure what more they could still make, beside a Fourth Age fanfic. I’m not really sure what the boundaries are of Amazon’s rights? Like, could WB make a Years of the Trees or First Age movie or series featuring Melkor?

As a sidenote I’d say the Amazon series is technically well made, but I don’t get why they didn’t just follow the actual lore, instead of trying to one-up one of the greatest writers in history. I mean they had a complete and extremely deep and detailed storyline right there. It would have been loved by fans. It’s just dumb really.

Amazon bought the rights to the 2nd Age only afaik, directly from the Tolkien estate. As far as I know, WB's rights only cover the The Hobbit and LOTR itself, as well as the general Middle Earth universe during the 50 or so year timeframe where the movies are set (which is how the WB published game War In The North was able to cover original characters fighting against Sauron's forces in the North at the same time the Fellowship was travelling towards Mordor and fighting Sauron's forces in the South, as well as how they were able to make Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War with original characters and and an original storyline between The Hobbit and LOTR). 

So, the only possibilities here for WB unless they acquire 1st Age, 4th Age, or Full 3rd Age rights from the Tolkien Estate are:

• Remakes of LOTR or The Hobbit with new actors (hopefully not the direction they go in, as these would almost certainly end up worse than the originals, as it is like trying to bottle lightning twice)
• A movie with original characters and an original storyline set in the general 50ish year time period of The Hobbit and LOTR
• A movie adaptation of one of their games with an original storyline that is set in the general timeframe of The Hobbit and LOTR, such as War in the North or Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War

From what I've read they have the same rights that Amazon does, but for movies. So the LotR and Hobbit books and the appendices for Return of the King. So no 1st age. I am down for seeing other major events from Middle-Earth, especially if Peter Jackson is on board and is allowed full creative control. 

Here is a quote from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Sounds like they are interested. 

“Warner Brothers and Embracer have kept us in the loop every step of the way,” the Oscar-winning trio said via Deadline. “We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”

Wouldn't there be another option? Copy Disney and do spinoff stories for all the individual characters. A Gimli movie, an Aragorn movie etc.

I suppose so. But since the original actors have all aged, recasting would be likely if they went that route. Not ideal, same as remakes.

Things like a Gimli movie or Aragorn movie even I don't think would be the success they think they would be (much like Star Wars found out the hard way with Solo).

You can't "MCU" everything, even the MCU is starting to fizzle a bit.

Cue the LOTR "cinematic universe", cause everyone's gotta be Marvel/Star Wars now..

I do wonder if they're going to base this off of Tolkien's supplementary material at all, or if they intend to take "creative liberties" and create most or all of the content themselves. If it's the latter, my outlook on this is very bad, especially coming off the heels of the Rings of Power Amazon series or whatever it's called.

The LOTR films are still three of my favorite movies of all time (in fact I think it's a rare case in which they're even *better* than the book material overall). And while I think it's unrealistic to even approach the quality of those, I do wish they'd at least try to adhere to that standard.

Thanks, that clears things up. Can’t say I’m excited about the prospect of these options happening though, seems redundant. But we’ll see what they come up with.

At this point I've stopped caring if they keep making movies in franchises where it is likely unnecessary. Hope whoever is interested enjoys it. I'll probably just stick to the originals, and the existence of new stuff isn't gonna hurt me.

Personally, I wouldn't mind them doing something like a Shadow of Mordor trilogy. The game was already made to look like it fit in the Peter Jackson Saga, plus they could borrow some of the actors from Rings of Power to play a few Elves. The question is if the story could translate well to film. I don't know enough about them to speculate on that. If not, perhaps they could make something that would imply the games are canonical to the film franchise without actually adapting the games themselves.