this legitimately might not be too far off what actually happens, lol. the specifics of the deal don’t actually leave them with a lot because so many other deals have been made with the rights:

The publishing rights to the books themselves aren’t included; they remain with the Tolkien estate and publisher HarperCollins. The licensing rights to Tolkien’s other Middle-earth works, The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, are also still controlled by the Tolkien estate and HarperCollins, although Embracer says it now owns “matching rights” to these works — meaning it has the right to match any offer the owners may get from elsewhere.

TV rights are another major exclusion. Per Variety, the right to produce a TV series longer than eight episodes was carved out of the deal Tolkien’s estate made with Saul Zaentz back in the 1970s, meaning Amazon was able to deal with the estate directly when it bought those rights in 2017, cutting Middle-earth Enterprises out of the deal. Nevertheless, Embracer says Middle-earth Enterprises has a “financial interest” in The Rings of Power, as well as Warner Bros.’ upcoming animated film The War of the Rohirrim, and EA’s in-development mobile game Heroes of Middle-earth.

Finally, there’s a question mark over the extent of the film rights Embracer has just bought. Warner Bros., the studio behind Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, has held the rights for years, but prior to the sale, the Saul Zaentz Co. was arguing that the rights reverted to it in 2021 because Warner Bros. had not been actively developing new film projects. According to Variety, Warner Bros. didn’t agree — and it’s entirely possible that The War of the Rohirrim was greenlit precisely so Warner Bros.’ lawyers could dispute this claim.