Silmarillion, a new upcoming movie from JRR Tolkien’s books?

JRR Tolkien has brought us one of the most admirable worlds to date. “Middle-Earth” was partially depicted through The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Turning books into film series since 2001, Peter Jackson has succeeded to present Tolkien’s universe to the masses. Indeed, these films are some of the most influential movies ever in history.

Throughout Middle-Earth tales, we are introduced to the 3 world’s ages: the first age, the second age, and the third age (The Lord of the Ring and The Hobbit’s era), and the fourth age which begins after the defeat of Sauron. Although we already saw quite a bit through the 6 extended movies already available, it seems that it’s never enough for Tolkien’s fans. Let’s discover together what the Silmarillion book has in store for us and why you should care in the following article.

The Silmarillion book: what is it about?

What makes JRR Tolkien’s books so special, is the way everything has a reason or a purpose, like how the goblins live and breed for example. The Silmarillion was written by the author and his son to unwind the history of the realm before the third age of The Lord of the Rings era. The main goal was to set the stage for his other writings, but JRR Tolkien sadly passed away before being able to finish the book.

Fortunately, his courageous son, Christopher Tolkien, continued his dad’s project while trying to keep it as consistent as possible. The famous book describes Middle-Earth legends of the world such as the great wars between Elves and Morgoth. We also learn how the Gods created all lives and how all living things populated the world.

The Silmarillion book is a complex anthology, containing 5 sections as follows:

• Ainulindalë (The Music of the Ainur): refers to the story of Eru, also called Ilúvatar (“Father of All”). He first created the Ainur, a group of eternal spirits, to help him prepare the new world for all inhabitants (Elves, Dwarf, and Men). This group of gods became later the Valar (the greater Ainur) and the Maiar (the lesser Ainur).
• Valaquente: describes “Melkor”, who had received the greatest power and knowledge from Ilúvatar, as well as the 14 Valars in detail. In this part, we finally learn how Sauron turned himself into the evil antagonist that we know and love.
• Quenta Silmarillion: narrates the main tragedy of the First Age, caused by three forged jewels called the Silmarils. To process and protect these precious jewels, elves have killed each other through many wars and were also forced to fight against the Melkor army. In this section, elves, dwarves, and men have been uncountably destroyed. The end of the book is considered as the end of the First Age of Middle-Earth.
• Akallabêth (“The Downfallen”): reviews the history after the defeat of Melkor, including the glory and the fall of the island kingdom named Númenor, the land of Dúnedain. No doubt, the fall of this kingdom happened due to Sauron’s takeover.
• Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age: is the narration of the events during the Second and the Third ages when Sauron returned to the Middle-Earth and the Rings were forged by Celebrimbor and Sauron. It is the fifth and last section of the Silmarillion book.

When will the Silmarillion movie be released?

Unfortunately, there is yet to be an official announcement for the shooting of the Silmarillion movie. Such mega-production requires massive investments. As previously described, the world of LOTR includes many languages and family trees of almost every important character. All of these require extensive work, research, time, and of course, an enormous budget.

Moreover, the Silmarillion is more like a textbook than an adventure. Its overarching narrative writing style can be a bit hard to follow, and the book is more like a long narration than a story. For this reason, it is an obstacle for filmmakers to translate it onto the big screen.

Are there any upcoming LOTR movies or TV shows in 2021?

Some large studios are still interested to bring the Tolkien tales to life, but the current state of the movie industry with the global COVID pandemic probably slowed down the conversations. In order to gather a large enough revenue stream for making the Silmarillion movie, other projects have been greenlighted.

Furthermore, a TV show on the Amazon Prime streaming platform is in the pipeline. This TV show will introduce the Second age and reveal Aragorn’s origin before he became the great king in The Lord of the Ring movies. Hopefully, this will satisfy the fans until the next mega project. As Tolkien fans, we hope to hear some news very soon about new Middle-Earth films and see our beloved franchise on the big screen once again.