The Lord of the Rings is one of the most influential fantasy series on the planet, and has influenced nerd culture for the better part of the last century. But experiencing the live-action adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic stories can be quite the undertaking. If you’re just starting off on this unexpected journey, you might want to clear your schedule.
Luckily, you’ve got us to make things easier for you. We’ve listed out all of the movies in one place, with info on the best places to find them and the order you should watch them in.
Short of actually cracking open a book, this is the best way to catch up on all of the LotR lore before the new season of Rings of Power premieres August 29 on Amazon Prime Video. Shall we begin?
1977–1980: The animated era
Tolkien’s work hit the screen long before Peter Jackson and Liv Tyler had anything to say about it. Two studios put out three animated films in the ’70s and ’80s, and they came out in chronological order. Sort of.
If you want to get your kids excited about Middle-earth, the 1977 Rankin & Bass Hobbit movie is probably the way to do it. It’s certainly a much shorter experience than the live-action trilogy.
The animated The Lord of the Rings movie is a little different in tone; like the books and the later live-action films, it’s a bit darker than The Hobbit. And since it was produced by a different studio, it’s in a different style.
But then Rankin & Bass took the reigns back for The Return of the King in 1980. It’s still darker than The Hobbit, and the whole thing’s a little weird since it’s not technically a sequel to the animated Lord of the Rings movie. But chronologically, it fills in the last piece of that movie’s story, so they’re getting lumped together for the sake of this guide.
Where to watch The Return of the King (1980)
The Return of the King (1980) isn’t currently available on any streaming service, but you can watch it on the internet archive.
2001–2004: The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy
The live-action Tolkien adaptations came out in reverse chronological order. The Lord of the Rings trilogy came first, detailing Frodo’s journey to destroy a cursed ring in the fires of Mount Doom.
The Hobbit trilogy, adapting the first of Tolkien’s Middle-earth books, came out a decade later. The Rings of Power series, which is currently airing on Amazon Prime Video, is a prequel to both of these trilogies.
This presents a weird sort of puzzle when it comes to proper watch order. We think you should probably watch in release order, which is the order we’re presenting the franchises here. But if you want to pretend you’re in a Middle-earth history class, you could probably do it backwards.
Where to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Where to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Where to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is currently streaming on both Max and Amazon Prime Video, but only Max has the extended editions of each film. If you go the extended route, you’re looking at roughly an hour and a half of extra content across the whole trilogy.
2012–2014: The Hobbit prequel trilogy
The Hobbit is about Frodo Baggins’s uncle Bilbo, who joins a party of dwarves on a quest into a dragon’s lair.
Unlike the Lord of the Rings movies, which roughly mapped one book per movie, the Hobbit trilogy split one book into three movies. This was a controversial decision among fans, and in retrospect maybe not the best idea. But hey, at least we got some fun songs out of it.
Where to watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Where to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
Where to watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
The extended editions of The Hobbit add 13–25 minutes of deleted scenes to the runtime of each movie, and the extended edition of The Battle of the Five Armies is the only franchise installment to be rated R.
2022–present: The Rings of Power prequel series
You can find the first season of The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video.
The series covers some of the events from The Silmarillion, a lore-heavy book of in-universe history popular with Tolkien enthusiasts. It moves farther back in time than The Hobbit, thousands of years earlier when characters like Galadriel and Elrond were young and The Shire didn’t even exist yet.
Luckily, you won’t have to wait thousands of years for more—season two premieres on August 29.
Stream The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022) on Prime
All caught up?
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2024: A new Lord of the Rings anime era?
You read that right. The franchise’s next film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, will be an anime. Chronologically, it takes place after the Rings of Power series but before the Hobbit movies.
The War of the Rohirrim will premiere in theaters on December 13.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in animation, check out our anime hub page. We’ve got plenty of recommendations for you to watch while you wait.
How to watch The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
The War of the Rohirrim isn’t available to stream yet, but you can check out the trailer above. Then catch the film when it arrives in theaters on December 13.
Olivia Bono loves entertainment, and she’s never going to shut up about it. Here at CableTV.com, you’ll find her writing about the wild world of streaming. Her specialty is animation—you can find much of her work at our anime hub page. Olivia previously wrote for the Cornell Daily Sun, where in addition to television, she reviewed movies, albums, and video games. Outside of work, she loves to listen to audiobooks, make art, and spend time outdoors.
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