LOTR being revisited for Epic Universe?

Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
Were there ever teens and children that cared about LOTR? As someone who was a teenager when the movies came out, I appreciated the spectacle of them, but could not be more lost. I had no idea what was even going on. It's really not a children's IP, even if you include The Hobbit. That being said, I think it could still have legs as a theme park land despite that fact. It just has to capitalize on the same spectacle as the movies. I'm not sure what the rides would be, unless they're just condensed versions of the stories ala a Fantasyland dark ride but on a bigger scale, but there's plenty of scenes that would translate well to a ride in that format. Only potential problem is that Harry Potter already covers some of the same territory, Forbidden Journey specifically (dragons, giant spiders, wraiths, etc.)
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In the 70s teens and college kids not only read the books, but often could be found with buttons that read "Frodo Lives!"

Plus it still has a large fane base:
  • The Bible. ~ 5 billion copies sold. ...
  • Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. ~ 1.1 billion copies sold. ...
  • The Quran. ~ 800 million copies sold. ...
  • The Lord Of The Rings. ~ 155 million copies sold. ...
It's sold more copies than any Harry Potter book. And Amazon paid out the wazoo for the right to LoTR (and is spending a lot per episode). So apparently they think there is life left.
 
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BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
JoeCamel said:
What will the merch and food be?
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I can’t find the menu online strangely, but there were like a lot of meat Pies and various beers they brewed. Sort of New Zealand meets British Pub Fare. It overlaps with Potter I guess, but so does a fourth Potter land.

If it wasn’t clear, the Shire movie set has an entire eat in Pub.

The merch wasn’t quite the slam dunk, but I’m sure Universal can figure it out. Particularly since Disney somehow made merch for Pandora. The Elvish Green traveling cloaks would likely be popular.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
I can’t find the menu online strangely, but there were like a lot of meat Pies and various beers they brewed. Sort of New Zealand meets British Pub Fare. It overlaps with Potter I guess, but so does a fourth Potter land.

If it wasn’t clear, the Shire movie set has an entire eat in Pub.

The merch wasn’t quite the slam dunk, but I’m sure Universal can figure it out. Particularly since Disney somehow made merch for Pandora. The Elvish Green traveling cloaks would likely be popular.
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I can see the dueling cloaks in the lands. Chaos will ensue, wands and swords will be raised....
 
C

choco choco

Well-Known Member
WDWFREAK53 said:
While I don’t argue that Lord of the Rings is a huge IP…but is it really “timeless?”
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I mean...the books are eternal. They were popular the day they were released over 80 years ago and have never gone out of print. As long as people still read, they'll continue to be one of the best selling books every year. The number of custom re-issues and special editions that come out every year frankly boggles my mind, and they're constantly accumulating Tolkiens copious notes and lesser writings into weird combinations and re-packaging them as "new" material every year.

WDWFREAK53 said:
Are there teens and children that even care about it anymore?

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s more deserving of a theme park land than Toon Lagoon or How to Train Your Dragon but is it an IP like Star Wars, Marvel, Potter, or Nintendo that kids and adults of all ages have interest in?
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I think people questioning this property's popularity says more about how silo'd they are than the questions themselves provide any insight into society. But just to count:

- The bidding rights for a show set in this universe that is explicitly not tied to the movies went for huge amounts of money and then immediately garnered a half a billion dollar season from Amazon and automatic second season order.
- The new video game is highly anticipated (it's delay announcement this week was met with wide consternation) and previous games did gaga numbers and won multiple awards.
- Just going off the movies alone, the Lord of the Rings IP is huge for Warner Bros. I believe it's one of HBO Max's main selling points and top viewed properties. It's so popular in fact that it's now considered a staple Christmas movie, believe it or not (I'm not kidding, look this up, it's a well-written about phenomenon). Warner Bros actually just greenlit another Lord of the Rings movie (animated), reeeeeaaaaaaaally stretching what they can make with this property because their rights are exclusively for the two books they've already exhausted, but unwilling to let this property go.
- New Zealand continues to get a tourist bump, and them being the Middle Earth setting is often cited as one of the main reasons people show up.

It is literally a "yes, very much so" to every one of your questions, up with any of the other properties listed there as one of the key golden franchises in modern pop culture.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
I LOL at the people who are like 'who really cares about LOTR' or question it's ability to stay

It's like saying 'are dinosaurs and pirates really timeless?'

The fantasy world of monsters, elves, knights, etc are all things people can connect with even without knowing anything about the individual story being portrayed. They are the blueprints that virtually every modern story follows... from saga journeys, storm the castle, save the trapped whatever, defeat the evil monsters.

You don't need to be a LOTR fan to admire the high elves when done right.. or understand someone's backstory to see a man fighting to be king, or understand that big ugly monster over there is a bad guy.

The LOTR books themselves are already nearly 70 years old.. and easily identifiable in pop culture.. and people ask 'does it have staying power?'. *roll eyes*

You can make LOTR approachable without being a LOTR nerd.
 
Frankenstein79

Frankenstein79

Well-Known Member
I'd love it if it's based on the Original Films and the Hobbit trilogy. The new one doesn't look like Tolkien and doesn't follow his words. There are no black Dwarfs, Elves and Harfoots, (which is one of the 3 types of hobbits).
 
DryerLintFan

DryerLintFan

Premium Member
WDWFREAK53 said:
While I don’t argue that Lord of the Rings is a huge IP…but is it really “timeless?”

Are there teens and children that even care about it anymore?

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s more deserving of a theme park land than Toon Lagoon or How to Train Your Dragon but is it an IP like Star Wars, Marvel, Potter, or Nintendo that kids and adults of all ages have interest in?

If it comes true, it will be a beautifully themed land. Off the top of my head I can’t really think of a scene from the movies or books that make me say, “That would be a great ride!” It’s almost as if it’s too big to cut up into a few attractions.
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Who cares about the rides, the food would be amazing!!

lord of the rings eating GIF
 
bhg469

bhg469

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Frankenstein79 said:
I'd love it if it's based on the Original Films and the Hobbit trilogy. The new one doesn't look like Tolkien and doesn't follow his words. There are no black Dwarfs, Elves and Harfoots, (which is one of the 3 types of hobbits).
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Much like a majority of people visiting universal that experience the potter lands, they will not care about the source material if its well done.
 
Frankenstein79

Frankenstein79

Well-Known Member
bhg469 said:
Much like a majority of people visiting universal that experience the potter lands, they will not care about the source material if its well done.
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The Potter Lands are more effective, because they are from movies we actually care about. That is why they had to add in a Ministry attraction for Epic.

They couldn't do a whole land based on just Fantastic Beasts, because it sucks.
 
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WDWFREAK53

WDWFREAK53

Well-Known Member
Frankenstein79 said:
The Potter Lands are more effective, because they are from movies we actually care about. That is why they had to add in a Ministry attraction for Epic.

They couldn't do a whole land based on just Fantastic Beasts, because it sucks.
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The IP/theme gets people to the parks. They enjoy the lands for the lands.
Meaning, people may not flock to a Fantastic Beasts land for vacation but may love the land once they are there.

I think LotR will do both. I don't think kids will be clamoring to get to it but the adults will (and they're the ones bringing the kids). Once they are in the land they will appreciate it and the kids may then go back and enjoy the books/movies.

Avatar is a funny one because it made so much money but it wasn't a great film. That being said, storyline aside, I wanted to visit Pandora while watching it in the theaters.
So, I don't think there are many diehard fans of Avatar, I think there are plenty that still wanted to visit it.
 
bhg469

bhg469

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
WDWFREAK53 said:
So, I don't think there are many diehard fans of Avatar, I think there are plenty that still wanted to visit it.
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This describes me perfectly.. I really have no love for the movie but Pandora is really amazing to look at, it has two pretty good rides and some of the most underrated food at any of the parks. Its a huge hit and the draw is probably only 10% because of the movie.
 

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