Tolkien Estate

The Tolkien Estate is the legal body which manages the copyrights of most of J.R.R. Tolkien's works. It mainly holds the copyright over the literary texts. Christopher Tolkien and his sister, Priscilla Tolkien, were executors. Current executors of the estate include Christopher's second wife Baillie Tolkien and Christopher's nephew Michael George Tolkien. Cathleen Blackburn of Manches & Co. has been the estate's solicitor for many years.

The film and merchandise rights for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were sold by J.R.R. Tolkien, and are currently owned by Middle-earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises, a company currently controlled by Embracer Group, while the television rights of these two books remained with Tolkien Estate.

On 13 November 2017, it was announced that Amazon Studios had acquired the television rights of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, committing to a multi-season television series. The series is not a direct adaptation of both of these novels, but instead it features stories that are set before the events of The Lord of the Rings. Amazon said that the deal included the potential production for a spin-off series as well. The press release referred to "previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings". Amazon is the producer in conjunction with the Tolkien Estate itself, The Tolkien Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema.