Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is finally coming to Netflix in the United States. Starting on February 1, the streaming service subscribers can watch The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King as part of the available content.
First released in December 2001, The Fellowship of the Ring introduced the fans to Frodo Baggins’ (Elijah Wood) epic quest to destroy the One Ring, the most powerful Ring of Power created by the Dark Lord Sauron. The ensemble cast also featured Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis, Sean Bean, Hugo Weaving, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, and Christopher Lee, among many others. Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom ended with 2003’s The Return of the King, the monumental third installment that won 11 Academy Awards out of as many nominations. Overall, the Lord of the Rings trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion at the box office and brought fantasy movies to a new and never-reached-before level of popularity.
New Line Cinema and WingNut Films produced the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Tim Sanders serving as producers (Sanders only for The Fellowship of the Ring). Howard Shore composed the unforgettable epic score for the three movies.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy rekindled the interest in Arda, the world imagined by John R.R. Tolkien. In 2012, Jackson also adapted The Hobbit into a trilogy of movies that was as successful as the first one and featured several actors reprising their roles.
A new TV series set in Arda is currently ongoing on Prime Video. Titled The Rings of Power, it follows the creation of the titular powerful magic tools. The story takes place many years before the adventures of Frodo and the others, but the series and the Lord of the Rings trilogy share some common characters, including Sauron and Galadriel.