trilogy will become available to watch on Netflix starting tomorrow, February 1. Based on the beloved fantasy novels by author J.R.R. Tolkien, the first installment of Peter Jackson's acclaimed The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released in 2001, chronicling Frodo's (Elijah Wood) epic journey across Middle-earth to destroy the One Ring. All three films in Jackson's trilogy were critical and commercial successes and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final installment, won a staggering 11 Oscars, including Best Picture. Jackson would later return to the world of Middle-earth with The Hobbit trilogy, which didn't earn the same level of critical acclaim.
According to What's on Netflix, The entire The Lord of the Rings trilogy will be available to stream on Netflix starting on Wednesday, February 1. The trilogy has long been available to stream on HBO Max, and it's unclear if it will be leaving this service tomorrow. Viewers who prefer the much longer, extended cuts of the three The Lord of the Rings movies are, unfortunately, out of luck, as it looks like only the theatrical versions are headed to Netflix.
Why The Original LOTR Trilogy Is Still So Rewatchable
Although the trilogy is now more than 20 years old, all three films hold up remarkably well. This is due in part to the films' groundbreaking marriage of visual and practical effects. All three The Lord of the Rings movies make clever use of miniatures, matte paintings, and forced perspective to bring to life Middle-earth's epic fantasy landscapes and creatures. Although visual effects and early CGI were paramount in terms of creating some of the trilogy's massive battles and outlandish beasts, like the cave troll and the balrog, the trilogy's use of practical methods ultimately helps to make the story feel more grounded and tactile, which is in contrast to some of what would come later in The Hobbit movies.
While the groundbreaking effects are certainly a large part of why The Lord of the Rings movies remain so rewatchable today, the story and the characters are also just as captivating to watch today as when the movies came out in the early 2000s. Jackson was really the first director to tell a fantasy story of this size and scope across three films, and it all remains deeply rooted in character. Wood's Frodo is certainly an unlikely hero when he is first introduced in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but he quickly proves that size matters not when it comes to the courage to undertake an impossible quest. The bond between Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin) serves as the emotional core of the films and, without it (and Wood and Astin's chemistry), even the most jaw-dropping effects would eventually lose their impact.
In addition to Wood and Astin, The Lord of the Rings movies feature a very strong cast of supporting characters. Viggo Mortensen, Aragorn, Ian McKellen's Gandalf, Orlando Bloom's Legolas, John Rhys-Davis' Gimli, Billy Boyd's Pippin, and Dominic Monaghan's Merry are all worth rooting for and each has their own impactful arc throughout the trilogy. Although Amazon's The Rings of Power has taken the franchise to some interesting new places, the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy remains at the absolute peak of fantasy storytelling even two decades later.
Source: What's On Netflix