A reliable source of LEGO rumours has teased another LEGO The Lord of the Rings set for 2025 – but it’s probably not the one you were expecting…
Ever since 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr fired its way into LEGO Stores in June, the people have been asking: “What’s next?” And all signs seemed to be pointing in a single, homogenous direction: Minas Tirith. The White City has popped up in graphics in both Barad-dûr and 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, not-so-subtly hinting that it’s next on the list for the LEGO Icons team.
However, Instagram user tandnbricks – who’s previously proven a reliable source of LEGO rumours – has now teased an entirely different prospect through a recent Instagram story. They shared an image of the map of Middle-earth included in Rivendell, which depicts the home of the Elves alongside Minas Tirith, Isengard, Barad-Dûr and Bag End, home of Bilbo (and subsequently Frodo) Baggins.
So far, so good. We’ve seen that map before, and so far the LEGO Group has ticked off at least one other location in Sauron’s formidable fortress, while Minas Tirith remains the only place the theme has never broached (even within the original LEGO The Lord of the Rings line in 2012). But tandnbricks’ story also includes a very specific quote from Return of the King: “I think I’m quite ready for another adventure.”
This could just be hinting at a new LEGO Lord of the Rings set and nothing more, but it feels quite telling that it’s a line spoken by Bilbo Baggins. Sure, it’s when he’s preparing to board a ship for the Undying Lands at the close of the trilogy, but paired with the map sticker from Rivendell, it feels like tandnbricks is teasing that the LEGO Icons theme’s next destination will actually be the Shire and Bag End rather than Minas Tirith.
Given the practicalities of boiling down such an expansive location as Minas Tirith to a minifigure-scale set – which we’ve already covered at length – it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the LEGO Group turn its attentions elsewhere, at least for a little while. And while it’s already travelled to Bag End once before in 2012’s 79003 An Unexpected Gathering, that was a relatively small 652-piece set based on The Hobbit.
With one eye on the first two modern LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets, a fresh interpretation of Bag End could expand to encompass more of the Shire with greater detail than before, or perhaps just give us a more complete version of Bag End, with a greater budget to play with and a focus on The Lord of the Rings rather than The Hobbit. It would also still offer variety in size, design and colour next to Rivendell and Barad-dûr.
Perhaps more importantly, even with increased detail and scope, it’s tough to imagine Bag End alone coming in at quite the same towering price point as its two immediate predecessors, so we could be looking at (whisper it) a slightly more affordable LEGO The Lord of the Rings set in 2025. But who knows? We could be reading too much into this single quote. It might not mean anything at all! And Barad-dûr is stacked with Minas Tirith references…
This is basically just the fun part of the rumour cycle anyway, when nobody is outright saying what’s in store, and we can instead speculate over endless possibilities and scrutinise opaque teases. For now, take the existence of any future LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets with a pinch of salt – but given an annual pattern has already emerged between Rivendell and Barad-dûr, it feels like a pretty safe bet.
10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell and 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr are both available now at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores.
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