How to watch The Lord of the Rings movies and shows in order (release date and chronological)

Curious as to how to watch The Lord of the Rings movies and shows in order? Well don't worry, we have got you covered with our guide below which has everything you need to know before venturing into Middle-earth. From director Peter Jackson's groundbreaking film adaptation of author J. R. R. Tolkien’s beloved novel to the The Hobbit trilogy of movies, and most recently Amazon's hit TV show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, there is plenty to discover in this fantasy world.

However, as all should know, one simply does not walk into Mordor (a.k.a. this epic franchise). And so, if you need a guide on your adventure we are on hand to help - think of us as your version of Gandalf here. Here we dive into the various ways you can watch - or, of course, rewatch - the series including chronological and release date order, as well as tackling where exactly you can stream these films and TV shows too. Everything you need to know is below.

And so, before the The Rings of Power season 2 arrives on our screens, it's time to get your head around how to watch The Lord of the Rings movies and shows in order. However, just a note before we go any further though, we've not included 1997 The Hobbit special in here as we're sticking to a live-action list.

The Lord of the Rings movies and shows in order – release order

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 (2022)

There are two main ways to navigate your journey into Middle-earth: in release order, or in chronological order. Here’s your guide to the former, which is how most people familiar with the world already will have watched them. 

We’ve got to admit this is probably the most satisfying way to tackle the saga as it's the way it was intended to be watched. And you won't miss much as you don’t get a huge amount of context that you’ll need later on from the prequels, they just add more to it once you’ve seen it.  

The Lord of the Rings movies and shows in order – chronological order

• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 (2022)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The other major way to get your head around The Lord of the Rings saga is to tackle it in the order of events. This means starting with the television series The Rings of Power, which is set thousands of years before the movies in the Second Age of Middle-earth and tells the origins of characters like Galadriel and Sauron. Then there’s a very big jump ahead to The Hobbit trilogy, which takes place in the Third Age of Middle-earth, and around 60 years before The Lord of the Rings Movies. 

Watching it in this order will mean you have a lot more context for some of the big events and main characters by the time you reach The Fellowship of the Ring. So if you’re a viewer who likes to know the whole picture first, then this might be the way for you to tackle it. 

Where to watch the Lord of the Rings movies in order

Unfortunately, not all of The Lord of the Rings movies and shows are available in one place. So you’ll have to do a bit of streaming platform hopping to be able to stay on top of your watching saga. 

Luckily, most are on the same platform. All of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies are available to watch on HBO’s streaming platform MAX in the US. Meanwhile, if you’re in the UK, you’ll need to have NOW TV in order to stream them.

The Rings of Power is only available on Amazon Prime Video so you’ll need a subscription to that streaming service to be able to watch it. If you want to keep it all in one place, you can buy the movies on Amazon as well so you don’t have to keep switching apps.

For more on Middle-earth, we're got a guide to The Lord of the Rings timeline to help you make sense of when events take place.