The Lord of the Rings trilogy extended and remastered to hit cinemas for the first time

Classic films will screen over a three-day period at participating cinema chains

Peter Jackson’s iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy is getting a re-release in cinemas this summer.

For the first time, an extended and remastered version of each film will be available to screen at participating US theatres, including AMC, Cinemark and Regal.

This means more bang for your buck, as each extended version includes added footage, more scenes and extra dialogue that sets up future plot points and provides more insight into the Hobbits and main characters.

Jackson remastered the three films in 2020 for a 4K Ultra HD re-release to make it seem “like they were shot at the same time”.

The three-day event – a collaboration between Warner Bors and Fathom Events – will begin on 8 June with the first movie, 2001’s The Fellowship Of The Ring, followed by 2002’s The Two Towers on 9 June and 2003’s The Return of the King on 10 June.

Fans can purchase tickets on the Fathom Events website.

Adapted from J R R Tolkien’s best-selling fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings trilogy starred Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit who must destroy the One Ring before it falls back into the hands of Sauron.

Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ (New Line Cinema)

In 2022, Amazon’s Prime Video released the debut season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the first TV spin-off of the films.

The show, which is expected to release its second season this year, is a prequel set thousands of years before the events of J R R Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Featuring Morfydd Clark as elf Galadriel (originated by Cate Blanchett in the films) the series tells the events leading up to the creation of Sauron’s Ring as well as the aftermath of a brutal war on Middle-earth.

Praising the show for being “a spectacularly cinematic return to Middle-earth”, in his four-star review for The Independent, Kevin E G Perry wrote: “The most expensive TV show ever made rummages around in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings appendices and comes up with gold.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season one is available to stream on Prime Video.

Last April, Wood gave his verdict on the “surprising” Lord of the Rings remakes, telling GQ: “I’m excited. I hope it’s good. I’m surprised – I don’t know why I’m surprised because of course there would be more movies.

“Obviously at the core of that, is a desire to make a lot of money. It’s not that a bunch of executives are like, ‘Let’s make really awesome art,’” he added, before clarifying: “And, again, not begrudging anybody because, of course, it is commerce. But great art can come from commerce. So those two things are not mutually exclusive.”