Before working on The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien began writing The Silmarillion in 1914. It is set in a time when the elves are leaving Middle-earth and much of what was once wonder and magic is gone. Silmarillion focuses mostly on the First Age, when Middle-earth’s elves first appeared and eventually fought the Valar Morgoth, a dark god responsible for the creation of the universe. Morgoth’s chief lieutenant was Sauron.
Tolkien never finished The Silmarillion while he was alive. Upon his father’s death in 1973, his son Christopher completed the book based on his father’s texts. No screen adaptation of The Silmarillion has ever been produced. Since Tolkien hadn’t finished it yet, he didn’t sell off the rights in 1966, so they remain with the Tolkien Estate. As far as we know, Tolkien’s Estate has never considered parting with the rights, but at this point, it is the only major work of Tolkien worthy of being adapted, and if I were WBD, I would do everything I could to make it happen.
As opposed to The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion is a very different sort of book. When most of your characters are immortal, the story will cover a much longer period of time. This book begins with a description of how the world was created, or Arda. In the early chapters, Melkor, the most powerful of the godlike Valar, appears as an antagonist. In Middle-earth, he seethes when the elves appear, and some of them turn into orcs as a result. Until the rest of the Valar come to Middle-earth, tore down his palace of Utumno, and imprisoned him back in Valinor, the blessed land, he sets himself up as a dark lord and messes with things.
Once Melkor is released from prison, he destroys the Two Trees of Valinor and steals the three Silmarils; without the trees, these jewels are the only remnants of the original light. Melkor, now known as Morgoth, takes the Silmarils and sets up shop in Angband’s palace. The creator of the Silmarils, an elf named Fëanor, leads a revolt of Noldorin elves (including Galadriel) out of Valinor to Middle-earth, where they will battle Morgoth for centuries. Throughout The Silmarillion, this is the main focus.
Adapting The Silmarillion as a series of movies might be challenging because of its scope. Yet, there are plenty of great tales to be told, as well as ample descriptions to aid in setting the tone.
For instance, there could be a movie about Beren and Lúthien, a mortal man and elven woman who fall in love and end up stealing a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. The story is one of Tolkien’s most achingly romantic. A hidden elven city is betrayed from within and destroyed by Morgoth’s forces in one of his earliest stories, the Fall of Gondolin. A tragic human warrior who commits accidental incest faces off with the dragon father, has run-ins with the dwarves, and faces off against the dragon father. Ultimately, Morgoth is defeated in the War of Wrath, which forever changes Middle-earth. Movies could be made from all of these stories.
Although I’m not sure if there’s a creative team skilled and bold enough to do The Silmarillion justice, I do know that trying is way more interesting than making The Young Aragorn Story or whatever they’re cooking up. Let Hollywood at least make Lord of the Rings movies based on the one Tolkien book that has not already been done to death, one that explores things many fans haven’t seen before. The Silmarillion should be made into a movie.
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