Gollum could be the key to cheaper LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets

The LEGO Group looks to be gearing up for another wallet-draining LEGO The Lord of the Rings set with Barad-dûr, but the key to cheaper Middle-earth models could be right around the corner.

Anyone walking into a LEGO Store for a minifigure-driven LEGO The Lord of the Rings experience in 2024 currently has only one option: 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, a 6,167-piece set that weighs in at £429.99 / $499.99 / €499.99. The LEGO Group appears to be on the verge of expanding LEGO Middle-earth with Barad-dûr, dropping a teaser of the flaming Eye of Sauron atop the towering stronghold.

A quick glance at the size of that brick-built eye and the base on which it sits suggests we’re looking at something that might rival Rivendell in piece count and budget, which is great news if you’re after the ultimate LEGO The Lord of the Rings experience, but less great if you don’t fancy sacrificing your annual LEGO budget to two sets. (Or if you don’t have the space to display them, which is an equally important consideration.)

So, what gives? Where are all the accessible and affordable LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets? They’re certainly not on the aftermarket, where the original wave of sets from 2012 to 2013 now commands very high prices indeed. If you head to LEGO.com, you’ll only find a few BrickHeadz sets at the kinds of price points that would qualify as impulse purchases. And while those are pretty good, they’re not what most people will be looking for.

It’s easy to see why the LEGO Group has positioned its Tolkien sets under the LEGO Icons banner. These are sets based on a trilogy of movies that’s now more than two decades old, and has pretty much zero relevance among the company’s primary audience – kids, lest we forget – even while Amazon fumbles around with The Rings of Power, a series that seems sure to be going at least two years between seasons.

These are sets carefully targeted towards adults, and that places them squarely under the purview of the LEGO Icons line, which is comprised exclusively of 18+ sets. But even that theme is capable of boiling sets down to cheaper price points, and is right now rumoured to be in the process of scaling things back: this year’s coveted Black Friday slot, once occupied by 10276 Colosseum, 10294 Titanic and 10307 Eiffel Tower, is thought to be devoted to a $260 model of Endurance in 2024.

LEGO The Lord of the Rings, meanwhile, seems content to keep mining the bank accounts of those of us who grew up with Peter Jackson’s turn-of-the-millennium trilogy and – so the LEGO Group assumes – now have disposable income and space to spare. (Hmm.) But that could be about to change… and it’s all thanks to Gollum.

Warner Bros. has just confirmed that a new The Lord of the Rings movie is in the works from director Andy Serkis, who will reprise his role from the original trilogy in The Hunt for Gollum. Jackson and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will produce the movie, which is the first of two films the trio will collaborate on for Warner Bros. as the studio seeks to revitalise the Middle-earth franchise.

“It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker – Gollum!” Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said. “As lifelong fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”

The last time the LEGO Group conjured up a full The Lord of the Rings theme was when Tolkien’s works were back on the big screen in The Hobbit (and its sequels). Those movies might not have received the critical reception Warner Bros. was hoping for, but they did provide the perfect excuse for Billund’s brightest to tackle Middle-earth in most of its glory. (There were some strange omissions across its two years.)

You don’t need to possess Aragorn-level detection skills – which may prove core to The Hunt for Gollum, according to this detailed breakdown of potential plot points from Polygon – to deduce that the LEGO Group thought the Hobbit movies made The Lord of the Rings relevant again, 10 years on from their release. The Hunt for Gollum could easily have the same effect, introducing a new generation of kids to the franchise and leaving them clamouring for LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets.

If their only options at that point are $500 Rivendell and Barad-dûr sets, the LEGO Group will not have done its job properly. The Hunt for Gollum is not due in cinemas until 2026, so it has plenty of time to get the wheels in motion for a full range of LEGO The Lord of the Rings playsets in time for its release. And you only need to glance at the comments on its Barad-dûr teaser post to see that the demand is there from adult fans too.

10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell is available now, while we’re surely only days away from a full reveal of Barad-dûr. An exclusive gift-with-purchase is also rumoured to be launching with the new Middle-earth set.

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