12 Years Later, The Hobbit Revisionism Has Started

Published Jul 19, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones. You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep." Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was groundbreaking for the fantasy genre and one of the greatest adventure movie masterpieces of the past 100 years. With Tolkien's expansive works once being considered unadaptable for the screen due to Middle Earth's extensive lore, the success of the three Lord of the Rings movies opened the door for other adaptations. With The Hobbit being a much simpler and shorter story, it was inevitable that it too would be adapted. Unfortunately, despite having Peter Jackson as director, the prequel trilogy fell far short of the mark. The Hobbit movies made significant changes from the book, had a dramatic shift in tone, included an extremely unpopular romance storyline, and lost the gravity and emotional beats that made The Lord of the Rings a success. Even with surprisingly high Rotten Tomatoes scores, many reviewers felt that The Hobbit movies did not do justice to the book, or the Lord of the Rings franchise. That said, to repurpose Lord Elrond's line, The Hobbit is now tied to the fate of the upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The Hunt For Gollum Recontextualizes The Lord Of The Rings Franchise The Hunt for Gollum is an original story and an unknown quantity in terms of potential success. Reportedly told from Gollum's perspective, it focuses on the events before The Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf enlists Aragorn to track down Gollum in search of the One Ring as he wanders the world cursing the name "Baggins." The new Lord of the Rings movie will answer a mystery Tolkien never did, which will be intriguing, but it will always be compared to Peter Jackson's masterpiece trilogy. With The Lord of the Rings largely beyond criticism, this could still recontextualize The Hobbit. ​​​​​​​All upcoming movies and TV shows in The Lord of the Rings franchise will be compared to the initial trilogy, but The Hobbit has the most to lose from The Hunt for Gollum. If the movie achieves its highest possible potential, reimagining and expanding on Tolkien's lore without retconning The Lord of the Rings, this will highlight The Hobbit's failure even more. On the other hand, if it is an unnecessary addition that has lost the heart and character writing that made The Lord of the Rings such a perfect adaptation, it may make The Hobbit look better by comparison. Why The Hunt For Gollum Is Necessary To Continue The Franchise Image via MovieStillsDB Many fans of Tolkien's work might have questioned why The Hunt for Gollum needed to be made in the first place when the author was so well-known for his epic and detailed lore, but the franchise may not have been able to continue without the upcoming movie. The Tolkien Estate only gave permission for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, along with their appendices, to be adapted, and Christopher Tolkien hated Peter Jackson's movies. Currently, this means that adaptations must only concern the events and characters in these two works. The younger generation of the Tolkien Estate are reportedly more open to discussing potential adaptations of Tolkien's other major works with Peter Jackson, but these are currently heavily guarded. It is possible that in years to come, The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, and The Fall of Gondolin could one day become movies or TV shows, but currently the only way to continue the Lord of the Rings franchise is to work with the available material. What The Upcoming Movie Could Learn From The Hobbit Two of the main factors that drew criticism from viewers were The Hobbit's lack of faithfulness to the source material and its more lighthearted tone. With The Hunt for Gollum being largely based on a single line from Aragorn, sticking to the source material will not be a consideration, but the movie must not recreate The Hobbit's overly-bright and cartoonish aesthetic, or its comparative lack of danger. The Lord of the Rings had funny moments, but The Hobbit reduced some characters to one-dimensional comic relief, while some of the book's action scenes became slapstick comedy. Comparing The Lord of the Rings to The Hobbit movies Title Year Rotten Tomatoes critics' rating Rotten Tomatoes audience rating The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 91% 95% The Two Towers 2002 95% 95% The Return of the King 2003 94% 86% An Unexpected Journey 2012 64% 83% The Desolation of Smaug 2013 74% 85% The Battle of the Five Armies 2014 59% 74% Despite The Lord of the Rings being a fantasy series, it is also a striking commentary on the way in which war and trauma changes people, and while The Hobbit book is more of an adventure story, it still explores some heavy subjects. The Hunt for Gollum must learn from the best scenes in The Hobbit, which capture a visual moment, like the butterfly scene and "riddles in the dark," while sticking to the spirit of the books, if not the exact text.