Calling all Ringers heading to San Diego Comic-Con!
TheOneRing.net may be looking for a few good folks to help out at TheOneRing.net and Middle-earth booths during the show. If you love Tolkien, enjoy meeting fellow fans, and don’t mind lending a hand in the middle of Comic-Con madness, we’d love to hear from you.
Weta Workshop is kicking off the Summer in spectacular fashion with three brand-new Middle-earth collectibles that are sure to excite The Lord of the Rings fans and collectors alike.
Leading the charge is the long-awaited 1:6 Scale Gimli – Hunter of the Plains statue, which joins the Classic Series lineup, and finally completes the legendary Three Hunters display alongside Aragorn and Legolas. Capturing the fierce determination and indomitable spirit of the son of Glóin during the chase across Rohan, this beautifully crafted statue is a must-have for collectors who have been waiting to unite the iconic trio. Gimli is available for pre-order now for $399 and is expected to ship in Q1 of next year.
Looks like gaming is back on the menu! Warhorse Games announces a new LOTR game built upon the engine and experience of the award-winning Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
In a tweet, Warhorse describes it as an open world RPG set in Middle-earth and adds “We’re excited to tell you more when the time is right.” Warhorse is owned by Embracer Group.
Introducing Fellowship a publicly traded company
In business news, Embracer Group has announced it’s splitting the company into a new publicly traded entity. Fellowship Entertainment will be traded on NASDAQ Sweden and house several companies that own & develop popular franchises.
In a press release, Embracer says “Fellowship will be one business segment with one strategy and business plan. The main rationale to spin-off Fellowship is to increase management focus to capture the full joint potential of the IPs, their respective communities and some of the best game developers in the world.”
AAA level experiences
The announcement says a goal is to deliver at least 2 high quality AAA products every year starting next year 2027. While we are unsure if this is in-house stuff from the Embracer family of board and video games, already there are two big releases in the works for 2027: Amazon’s huge TOMB RAIDER show, and Andy Serkis’ THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM feature film.
Here’s a list of the IP they call out in the announcement which Fellowship will be seeking top quality entertainment & experiences to develop.
The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Tomb Raider
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Dead Island
Darksiders
Remnant
Metro
Saints Row
Legacy of Kain
Deus Ex
Red Faction
The Mask
Thief
TimeSplitters
The companies that will be part of Fellowship Entertainment are:
Middle Earth Enterprises
Dark Horse Comics / Media
4A Games
Crystal Dynamics
Dambuster Studios
Eidos-Montréal
Fishlabs
Flying Wild Hog Studios
Gunfire Games
Redoctane Games
Warhorse Studios
The Business of Lord of the Rings
LOTR has made an interesting journey in the business world. If you want to learn more about how we got here, check out THE FRODO FRANCHISE now on Audible. Enter to win a free copy of the book at the bottom of the recent article here.
As we shared last week, fans can now start collecting figures from the 1978 Ralph Bakshi The Lord of the Rings animated film. The collectibles are made by our friends at Dark Horse Direct. Set One includes figures of Aragorn, Frodo, and Samwise – which are available right now to pre-order. We’re pleased to announce the folks at Dark Horse Direct have three more members of The Fellowship coming fans’ way.
Set Two of The Lord of the Rings series, which is available for pre-order starting today, includes Boromir son of Gondor, Merry, and Pippin. The size of the figures range from 5″ for the Hobbits to 7.5″ tall for Boromir. This set, like Set One, comes in with a price tag of $89 for all three statues. However, if you pre-order this set from Dark Horse Direct you can save $10 on your order; but that’s not even the best deal we have for you today in this announcement! When ordering both Set One and Set Two from Dark Horse Direct, fans can save $15! Set Two is due to ship in Q1 of next year.
For the next couple of years we’re in 25th Anniversary territory for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies. If you’re nostalgic for the heady days of epic fandom (and for some of us, obsession!), or if you are just curious about exactly how some of the legal wrangling went down, then you need to explore author Kristin Thompson’s The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. And it’s now available on Audible!
Thompson is a long-time friend of TheOneRing.net, often providing us with her expert insight into the machinations of the movie industry. Her book is a fascinating look at one of the very biggest of movie franchises/fandoms – and a wonderful trip down memory lane for those of us who remember all the excitement, build up, merchandise, etc. around the turn of the millennium and for a decade thereafter.
Thompson’s book is extremely well researched and full of facts and figures – but it’s never boring. Here’s what TORn wrote around the time that the book first came out:
Kristin Thompson interviewed seventy-six people to examine the movie’s scripting and design and the new technologies deployed to produce the films, video games, and DVDs. She demonstrates the impact Rings had on the companies that made it, on the fantasy genre, on New Zealand, and on independent cinema. In fast-paced, compulsively readable prose, she affirms Jackson’s Rings as one the most important films ever made.
Narrator ‘The Voice of Nick’ is very easy to listen to. The audiobook edition includes a new epilogue written for this release, in honor of the 25th anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring movie. There’s even a section in the book all about the origins of TORn, plus coverage of the surrounding fan and media ecosystem (video games, licensed promotions, New Zealand tourism, and more).
A must listen (or read, if you prefer!) for any fan, we have five codes for Audible (US region) for free download, to giveaway to five lucky folks! To be in with a chance to be a random winner, click here. Good luck – and if you’re not a luck winner, get your Audible copy here.
One of the most popular Middle-earth exclusives at San Diego Comic Con every year is the amazing art that comes from our friend Jerry Vanderstelt. SDCC 2026 will be here in just a couple of months, and it’s time for fans who will be there to pre-order Vanderstelt’s SDCC 2026 Exclusive. Collectors can – for the first time ever – get Vanderstelt’s beautiful Rivendell art print in the 12×16 format. Only 400 fans who are going to be at SDCC can pre-order this right now and pick it up during Comic-Con, with the final 100 being saved to be sold during the show. Do not hesitate on getting this now, because it won’t last at the show – and at just $22, these pre-order ones will be gone long before SDCC rolls around!
