The term "canon" is not one that lends itself very well to media based on Tolkien's work due to the fact that all of it is an adaption of his literature and not adding to it and the fact that his estate has never clearly stated that any additional media adds to what he wrote. This means that none of the films, shows, or games are canonical to Tolkien's written universe. However, another continuity was created by New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson in 2001 after he released his The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films which included differences to characters, events and more. This continuity was further fleshed out with the release of Jackson's trilogy of Hobbit films, the first of which came out in 2012. This article will discuss canonicity of the film universe and what can and can't be considered "canon" for purposes of this timeline.
Movies[]
All six theatrical movies in the Middle-earth Saga (The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit) are the main pieces of media included in the continuity and Peter Jackson deliberately used The Hobbit movies to set up his well received original trilogy on The Lord of the Rings.
Extended Editions[]
The Extended Editions can also be considered canon as they almost always include expansion to scenes from the originals rather than changing them, (one of the only exceptions to this is the inclusion of Thráin in Dol Guldur where he was digitally inserted into existing scenes of the extended cut of The Desolation of Smaug. In this case the extended scene is considered canon on the wiki). They are also official releases which confirms their inclusion in continuity.
Anime[]
The upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is confirmed to be set in the film-universe and will feature Helm Hammerhand who is seen as a statue at Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Director Kenji Kamiyama is going to collaborate with New Line Cinema and the film is to be distributed by Warner Brothers. It is unknown whether any other LOTR anime is planned as of yet.
Television[]
Middle-earth came to television in 2022 with the release of Amazon Prime's show. It is not considered to be canon to the films of Peter Jackson. While the wiki currently splits the show from the movies, here is a list of inspirations from the films:
Inspirations[]
- Morfydd Clark has been cast as Galadriel and reportedly is meant to look like a younger Cate Blanchett. In an interview she mentioned taking inspiration from Blanchett's version of the character.[1]
- Peter Jackson was reportedly looking over scripts and was given his opinion by Amazon herself while not being officially involved.[2]
Tabletop Games[]
The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, created by Games Workshop with full rights, and associated media, serves as an invaluable recourse for much of the wider lore of Middle-earth, as well as giving names and details. It should be considered canonical, except for the elements that contradict the films, namely the Scouring of the Shire and other scenarios that are based on scenes from the Novels that are impossible to fit into the films. Likewise, the Decipher Roleplaying Game, intended to emulate the films, also serves as a useful source for the information it adds. The One Ring system, and its successors, however, draw solely from the books and ignore the films, so are not canon to the Cinematic Universe.
Video Games[]
Most of the older video games produced by Warner Media exist to compliment the film trilogy but most of their storylines can not be considered canon.
War in the North[]
The only video game that can be considered canon in it's entirety is The Lord of the Rings: War in the North which goes out of it's way to make sure not to contradict events from the film and flesh out events that were happening in the north of Middle-earth during the War of the Ring. The game also fleshes out expanded lore from The Lord of the Rings books that is not confirmed from the films such as the Nazgûl going to Erebor to look for Bilbo.
BFME series[]
The Battle for Middle-earth series is clearly a film tie-in, using all models related to the films. However there are multiple reasons that the actual gameplay from the levels cannot be used as canonical. The wiki uses the lore and events expanded upon the series in their main campaigns but not the actual gameplay aspects. Here are some reason as to why.
- In the first level in Moria, Gandalf survives his fight with the Balrog and never leaves the company. This can be boiled down to the game developers wanting to allow players to keep using Gandalf as a playable character.
- Similarly, Boromir does not die at Amon Hen.
- Treebeard is playable in the north storyline of BFME II which is extremely unlikely and near-impossible.
These changes can be ignored for the sake of consistency and it can be concluded that they were only made to give players more options in gameplay. The original game also adds a bunch of missions to the story that don't happen in the films. This is also done to make the campaign longer for the player.
Rise to War[]
The lore sections and character descriptions in this game are easy to include as canon, although the actual gameplay and campaign levels don't suit themselves to being completely accurate, but rather a retelling of events.
Shadow series[]
The games produced by Monolith Studios - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War are tied heavily into the films visually and the producers even worked with WETA and Peter Jackson on certain aspects to maintain the visual continuity. If the second game had never been released, the first game could have maybe been considered canon, (while it did break some aspects of lore, it also did a good job of expanding Sauron's return to Mordor after the events of the Hobbit Trilogy), the second game didn't seem to care much at all for the greater Tolkien lore and did it's own thing. On this wiki, the Shadow of War games are considered their own timeline where the films still take place but they don't exist in the primary continuity. For the events of the Monolith Timeline, see its timeline page.
Note: This list is incomplete