Lord of the Rings – like the Harry Potter movies – has had a rumor swirling on social media the past couple of months that the trilogy would be available to Netflix subscribers in the near future. Unfortunately, unless you see it posted on Netflix’s official Twitter or Facebook page, you can’t believe everything you read about the streaming giant on social media.
While the first movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy is available to Netflix subscribers, the entire trilogy collection is not.
According to What’s On Netflix , the first movie from the trilogy is scheduled for removal from the streaming library next month. The Netflix fan site, however, does clarify all movies from the trilogy are currently available for streaming in the Hulu library after the competing streaming giant picked up rights to all three movies in May of this year.
Lord of the Rings Netflix History
Lord of the Rings has a bit of a unique history with the Netflix U.S. platform. The first movie has been added to the library on two different occasions this year. It first appeared in January only to devastate subscribers when it was pulled just a few months later. Netflix then added the movie once again in August only to reveal the movie would leave again in January of next year.
With Hulu and Starz retaining streaming rights to the second and third movie from the trilogy, they were not able to make an appearance in the Netflix streaming library during the year 2018.
As What’s On Netflix reminds us, the streaming giant has to shell out big bucks to hold streaming rights to popular movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So – for budget reasons – it isn’t too surprising that the movie would come and go from the streaming library in brief waves.
Lord of the Rings fans are in luck — the Peter Jackson film trilogy is headed to Netflix UK this November. Could the US be next? https://t.co/wgohhLzn6f pic.twitter.com/bV4OBrhEjv
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) October 26, 2018
While Netflix has been known to throw a lot of money at content streaming in their library, they have been focused on trying to create original content instead of continuing to throw tons of money at content that will only temporarily be in their library.
What About The Lord of the Rings Series?
While there is a new TV series surrounding the Lord of the Rings books in the works, Netflix missed out on any rights to stream the series. Amazon reportedly paid a hefty price tag of a billion dollars to secure exclusive streaming rights to the series.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring will be leaving Netflix US in January. https://t.co/SSmfsfrMd0 pic.twitter.com/dSW5qqOC8s
— What’s on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) December 13, 2018
Unfortunately, What’s On Netflix speculates this will likely give Amazon first dibs on the movies from the trilogy as they now have a vested interest in the Lord of the Rings franchise.
