Cauldron of Fanfic: The Use of Jackson's Films in Constructing Tolkien-Based Fanfiction by Dawn Walls-Thumma

Cauldron of Fanfic: The Use of Jackson's Films in Constructing Tolkien-Based Fanfiction

One of the most evocative metaphors from Tolkien's lecture On Fairy-Stories is the Cauldron of Story: the idea that all of humanity's narrative elements exist in a "pot" from which storytellers make their selection. The art of storytelling, according to this analogy, is less one of invention than of selection.

Fan studies scholars and many fanfiction writers have long embraced the idea that fanfiction serves a critical function. While this is not the only reason fanfiction writers write, it is a purpose for many of them. Crafting a fanfiction story, for these writers, is an act more complicated than simply coloring between the lines laid down by the original creator. It involves selecting canon details or, in some cases, expanding upon or even altering the canon to foreground an interpretation of a character, event, or theme from the text. Returning to Tolkien's Cauldon of Story, he wrote in On Fairy-Stories, "But if we speak of a Cauldron, we must not wholly forget the Cooks. There are many things in the Cauldron, but the Cooks do not dip in the ladle quite blindly." This third essay in my series on how fanfiction writers use the films in their stories could be summed up in these terms: where, why, and how they are dipping their ladles to create stories set in Tolkien's legendarium.

Peter Jackson's¹ two film trilogies are among the many texts Tolkien fanfiction writers use when crafting their stories, and authors likewise engage with them critically and in diverse ways. In April 2020, I investigated how the film trilogies brought fans to the fanfiction community and inspired engagement with Tolkien's work through fanworks. This time, I'll consider how fan writers use the films in their fanfiction. 

Just as last time, I will be using data from the 2015 and 2020 Tolkien Fanfiction Surveys (the latter survey undertaken in collaboration with Maria K. Alberto). And just as last time, I offer the reminder that survey data offers but one part of the answer to a question. Furthermore, because the surveys require self-reporting, one should bear in mind that this can skew responses. Some respondents, for example, may not want to admit a perspective that they find embarrassing or unpopular, even under the protection of anonymity. Others might not even be aware of how the films shape their fanfiction. After all, a fan who started writing after seeing the films cannot rewind time to see how their fanfiction might have differed if they'd started with the books.

The survey data only scratch the surface—and barely at that—of the myriad ways the films inspire fanfiction. To gain additional perspective, I put out a call on the SWG's Discord server and the Henneth Annûn email list on Groups.io for writers who used the Jackson team's films in some way in their fiction.² Quite a few people responded, and their responses also inform my conclusions in this article.

The stereotypical filmverse author breathlessly and uncritically uses the films as the sole fodder for her (for it is nearly always a her, in this stereotyped vision, and the her is either very young or older and single) stories that she is so eager to write that she cannot pause to read the books first and learn the "correct" version of the story. Motivated by handsome faces and gym-honed physiques, she makes sensational creative choices rather than canonical ones that center beautiful actors at the expense of Tolkien's timeless themes and meticulous worldbuilding.

When I joined the fandom in 2004 (as a film fan), this was what many bookverse fans believed of filmverse fanfiction writers. Similar ideas about fans brought into the fandom by the upcoming Rings of Power television series are already beginning to infiltrate the fandom.

My interviews with writers who use the films in their fanfiction gave the lie to any notion that filmverse writers are thoughtless, uncritical, or even monolithic in their views of the films, much less how they use the films in their fanfiction. Instead, the writers I interviewed revealed nuanced, complex, and always thoughtful engagement with a variety of texts related to Tolkien, including the films.

Jackson as Inspiration

As discussed in my last article, a purely "movieverse" fic fandom doesn't really exist, according to survey data. In both surveys, less than 1% of authors used only the films for their fanfiction. My interviews supported these data: All of the authors who were willing to speak to me used the books in some way as well. In most cases, they had read the book(s) adapted by the films they used in their stories. A smaller number of authors used only the films but supplemented them with posthumous texts like The Silmarillion to gain a better understanding of the backstory of the films and add depth to the worldbuilding and characterization in their stories. More information on this small but intriguing group of writers can be found in the graphic to the right.

However, the films have an undeniable influence. Two statements on the 2020 survey asked about the films: "I started writing Tolkien-based fanfiction because of Peter Jackson's movies (either The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit trilogy)" and "Peter Jackson's movies have encouraged me to write Tolkien-based fanfiction." Sixty percent of authors agreed with one or both of these statements, illustrating the compelling influence that the films have even on fan authors who work primarily with the books.

The interviews I conducted with movieverse writers echo this sentiment. More than once, respondents said something along the lines of: "The films are the reason why I am in the Tolkien fandom in the first place." Respondents often identified a strong emotional connection with the films, sometimes associated with turning points in their lives or connections with friends and family members with whom they enjoyed the films (or both!)

Aesthetics

Last time, I discussed the formative influence of the Lord of the Rings (LotR) films on how many fans imagine Middle-earth. Emerging at a time when the fandom had moved online but fanart was scarce and hard to share, the LotR films provided the visual canon for many fans. This sentiment was shared in many of the interview responses as well. Idrils_Scribe identifies as a bookverse writer but used prop and costume designs from the films, including the meticulous research that went into documenting them. She describes one fansite, no longer online,

with detailed descriptions of patterns, styles and materials used for every single costume and artefact shown in the trilogy. It was such a wealth of interesting information about how all those objects were made and what real-world styles and historical periods inspired them. As a bookverse writer, these objects made for the movies helped me visualize the settings and characters I was trying to describe, and it hugely enriched my stories.

Another aspect of the films that respondents identified was the music. "Howard Shore's compositions for both trilogies are absolute masterpieces," also wrote Idrils_Scribe, going on to say:

The music is so well made and atmospheric that it's become an indispensable writing tool for me. No matter what kind of piece I'm working on, from epic battles to intimate scenes and everything in between, there's a piece of music from the movies that can help me get in the right mood.

Character

Aesthetics are not the only influence, however. The films' greatest influence on the writers I interviewed was in terms of character. Many writers noted that the films drew forth details about minor characters who were otherwise easily overlooked—or in some cases just a name—in the books. In fact, I found it interesting that not a single author I interviewed noted that the films increased their interest in characters who play a leading role in the books. For example, seeing Galadriel and Gandalf in their role fighting the Necromancer in the Hobbit films was noted by no one I interviewed as inspiring their fanfiction.

Jillian was a book fan when the films came out. "[A]ll of a sudden, l could see Middle-earth and the characters," she said of the films. "The books sprang to life in a way l had not previously experienced." The films encouraged her to seek out Tolkien content online, where she discovered fanfiction and began writing her own version of a Tenth Walker story.

Many more Hobbit film fans pointed to the films as pivotal in giving individual personalities to Dwarven characters who, in the books, can be difficult to distinguish from each other. Razzy noted:

I feel there is more depth to the characters—the Dwarves were each given a personality and a unique look, and each had a part to play in the films versus being background characters that may or may not get mentioned a time or two like in the book. … [A]s a creator, it gives you more personalities to play with versus having to rely on the same few names over and over again.

However, as blueberryrock observes, it is not as though those characters were fully developed, even in the films. Rather, they often presented tantalizing embellishments—often visual—on the minimal book characterizations while still leaving ample gaps for fanfiction writers to fill. "The movies … were so great to me as a fic writer because of the characters that were left not necessarily blank but didn't have that much story to them," she wrote. "[I]t made it so fun to come up with different headcanons or fics to explore their personalities or what characters looked like, their backstories, or future adventures."

Nor were the Dwarves the only characters in the Hobbit films who occupied that sweet spot between new information on a character coupled with lingering questions. Daughterofshadows found that the Hobbit films inspired them to write about Lindir. "[R]e-watching An Unexpected Journey after reading some fanfic suddenly opened my eyes to the possibility that Lindir could be so much more than 'just' a musician," they said, pointing to the fact that the films' elevation of Lindir to an important role in Elrond's household caused them to question the common fanfiction assumption that Lindir's role was beneath that of Glorfindel and Erestor. "[I]t was as if a piece that had been missing the entire time slid into place in the organisational structure of Imladris—at least the one that existed in my mind."

Genre

Of course, one of the most prominent examples of the films' influence was the several fanfiction genres that arose entirely due to their influence. Legolas's popularity in early-mid 2000s fanfiction, for example, was almost entirely due to Orlando Bloom, not (sorry Tolkien!) Tolkien's construction of the character in the books. The Tenth Walker genre is another to emerge almost whole-cloth from the films. Tenth Walkers—also known as Girl Falls into Middle-earth or Modern Girl in Middle-earth stories—were popularized by the LotR films but have enjoyed a resurgence thanks to the Hobbit films. In this genre, an additional character joins the Fellowship or Thorin's Company. Typically, the new character is a modern girl, often a self-insert of the author, and an original character, although this is not always the case.

Mattie spoke to me about their in-progress Modern Girl in Middle-earth story The Second in Arda and how they integrated both film and book canon in order to write it. They describe often starting with the films and working back through the books to expand and build on those details. They offer Legolas's mother as a character brought to their attention by the films. "​​I worked backwards from the info in the Hobbit [film] that she died in Gundabad, and then looked at the books to see what canon conflicts would have led her there," Mattie wrote. Haldir was a character from the LotR films whose role they aligned more with the books in order to keep him alive in the storyline. "In the end, I was able to combine both canons to create this storyline."

Fernstrike and Jillian also wrote Tenth Walker stories, both following the release of the LotR films (though, inspired by this project, Jillian has resumed work on her story after many years). "I wanted to take the typical teenager age group and really consider, realistically, what dropping someone like that into Middle-earth would look like," Fernstrike wrote of their (currently unpublished) story "Shifting of the Scales." This meant delving into issues, like language barriers, that are typically elided in Tenth Walker stories. Fernstrike also notes that, as a young writer, the films provided an accessible entry point to transformative works before they had the opportunity to fully read and absorb the books.

Jillian's Tenth Walker story subverted the idea that the addition to the Fellowship must be a modern girl or even human, adding Bill the Pony as the Tenth Walker, an idea that was provoked by Bill's appearance in the films. "[T]he pony who played Bill was] clearly crossbred in appearance," Jillian observes. "In fact, l was strongly reminded of my own Brumby pony, Carbine … . So l started thinking what would Carbine think and do in Bill’s place?" Again, we see how the additional details provided by a visual medium can encourage novel thinking even among experienced book fans and how new genres inspired by the films, like the Tenth Walker genre, allow the room writers need for this experimentation.

Similar to the Legomances of the LotR films, Bagginshield is a genre from the Hobbit film era that is provoked entirely by casting choices and the actors' on-screen chemistry. While the Bilbo/Thorin pairing certainly isn't impossible based on the books, the choice of two young and handsome actors (in comparison to the older and more grizzled depictions of Bilbo and Dwarven characters in the LotR films) and the on-screen presence that Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage brought to their roles drives Bagginshield stories. Razzy, a Bagginshield writer, identifies the on-screen performances as a reason for her interest in the pairing. "[I]t was fun to see the characters develop that sort of respect and friendship on screen," she writes. "It made me love them more to be able to see them, to hear their voices and just have some more life to them. I don't feel like a lot of that could be plucked from the book."

Finally, the addition of Tauriel to the Hobbit films inspired some writers who felt the lack of women in the Hobbit book. "In LotR I had Arwen and Éowyn and Galadriel to project on, but The Hobbit distinctly lacked that," wrote daughterofshadows. "Tauriel became that anchor point for me." They also note that Tauriel's status as a common person (versus nobility) and a Silvan Elf in a Sindarin-governed realm gave added depth and interest to her character. Arofili is another author who writes Tauriel within the broader context provided by the books. "I like to incorporate Tauriel into the wider legendarium—since we don't know what happens to her after the movies, but she is definitely alive, she could do literally anything!" they write. "It's fun to have her meet other important characters who are around at the time, and travel to far-flung lands." Both authors provide further examples of how a film construction can lead fanfiction writers deeper into the books in a quest to provide additional detail and context.

Jackson as Authority

The two film trilogies are sometimes framed by fans as fanfiction—high-budget, professional fanfiction, yes, but not otherwise appreciably different from how fans manipulate the texts to tell the story they want to tell. However, as the masterminds behind two trilogies of films that have been seen by millions, Peter Jackson and his creative team are granted a degree of authority that no fan or fanwork will ever approximate.

Within the Tolkien fandom, there are many parties who can serve as authorities on Tolkien's work: Christopher Tolkien and the Tolkien Estate, scholars and other experts on his work, the filmmakers and showrunners, other fans, and of course, Tolkien himself. For some questions discussed in the fandom, all of the aforementioned have offered perspectives, some at variance with each other.

Do fanfiction authors see Jackson and his team as authorities? Do they grant their perspectives and interpretations weight beyond their own?

The 2020 survey presented five items to authors concerning whose authority they considered when writing their stories: Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, Peter Jackson and other filmmakers, Tolkien scholars and experts, and other fans. The graph below shows how many participants chose Agree or Strongly Agree for these items.

Not surprisingly, Tolkien's authority holds the most sway, with two-thirds of fans considering his views on the canon in their fanfiction. Next is the views of other fans, with 61% of authors considering their peers' views, followed by Tolkien scholars and experts and Christopher Tolkien. At the dead bottom of the list is Peter Jackson and his team: Only 28% of fans consider their views on the canon when writing fanfiction, and only 3% strongly agreed with the statement.

Among fans who agreed or strongly agreed that they started writing because of the films, this number is much higher: 46% agreed or strongly agreed that they consider Jackson's views on the canon. However, this same group of fanfiction writers—those who started writing because of the films—agree about their consideration of Tolkien's views of the canon at the same rate as fanfiction authors overall: 66% chose Agree or Strongly Agree for that item.³ Meanwhile, among fans who didn't start writing because of the films, Jackson is essentially a persona non grata as far as his views on the canon, with only 11% taking his perspective into account.

From this, we can conclude that fans who started writing because of the films place more weight behind Jackson's views on the canon—not surprising given that the films were their impetus to themselves create stories based on Tolkien's world. All the same, these authors do not supplant Tolkien's views with Jackson's. They are just as likely as fans brought to the fanfiction world by the books to regard Tolkien's views when crafting fanworks.

Reconciling Jackson

Among authors who use the films as inspiration, there is great variability in how they choose the details they use from the films versus those that they use from the books. Some authors started with a film detail and then backfilled information from the books. Others, beginning with the books, saw their attention directed to interpretations of the books that they would not have considered without the films. Still others hopped among approaches based on which best served the story or their personal preference. What united them, however, is that they chose a text as their canon for a particular character, event, setting, or moment—be it book or film—and considered this detail factual for the purposes of their story, setting aside other versions from other texts.

Another group of authors took a slightly different approach, looking for areas where film and book canon diverged and seeking to reconcile the two (or more) versions of the story into a coherent whole. As I've been discussing the films frequently with fans in recent months, many fans express a tension between their self-identity as bookverse fans and their love for the films. The word despite gets used a lot, as in, "I love the films despite what was done to [fill in the blank]." Perhaps not surprisingly, what fills in the blank is often the way that Jackson's team altered a character from how Tolkien wrote him or her. Among my interviewees, Faramir, Denethor, and Thranduil were most frequently mentioned after the despite.

Given this, reconciling filmverse characterizations with the books is one way fanfiction writers use the films. "I love writing around what the characters could or should have been—looking for ways to take the ideas from PJ's backstory and bring them more in line with the book characterizations," wrote tinnurin, a Hobbit author who writes Thranduil/Bard stories.

Perhaps no author has embraced this idea more enthusiastically than Zhie, the creator of the Bunniverse, now a shared universe that includes more than four hundred stories by at least eight different authors. Originating in 2001, Zhie describes a dark movie theater as the moment when the Bunniverse began in earnest:

Haldir dying at Helm's Deep wasn't the start of Bunniverse, because we'd already been coming up with the 'what if' stories as games to make things work if there were differences, but it was when Haldir showed up at Helm's Deep in the theatre that I recall whispering to [my husband] Smaug, "Shit, they're going to kill the pretty one"; immediately I followed with, "I'm going to have to fix this…"

In the case of the Bunniverse, Zhie and other authors try to reconcile not just the books and the films but every Tolkien adaptation into a single coherent storyline: the animated films, games, gamebooks, and so on. "It's also a puzzle," said Zhie, "and puzzles are something I somewhat need, because life, the universe, and everything gets very boring for me without them. Trying to fit all of the pieces of these different versions into one is the literary equivalent of solving a Rubik's Cube." This was an idea I saw emerge in responses from other writers who sought to reconcile details between the books and films: that the two versions didn't just expand on each other, providing a wider selection of details, gaps, and inspiration for writers to choose from, but the intellectual exercise of finding where the books and films diverged and weaving new stories to draw the two versions together and explain their differences was part of the purpose—and the pleasure—of taking this approach to writing.

Authors who reconcile the books and films also tended to discuss their work in terms similar to Tolkien's own approach to the welter of texts that informed his academic work (and also inspired the legendarium): mythological and medieval texts that exist in forms and fragments that embellish upon and contradict each other. The legendarium itself, with its many iterations of drafts, sometimes produced across decades, exists in a similar form—and for many filmverse authors, the films become simply another perspective on the story, subject to analysis similar to that performed by fans on the various versions of Tolkien's stories (or scholars on the various versions of ancient and medieval texts).

Fernstrike is one author who describes using fanfiction to reconcile what they perceive as mischaracterizations of Isildur and Thranduil in the films, foregrounding details from the films themselves that support book characterizations. They write of their approach to Thranduil's character:

I keep a digital scratch pad of some key Thranduil quotes/moments from the film and some scenes/dialogue have been explicitly written to—subtly or unsubtly—reference and in the vast majority of cases refute [the film] characterisation. I use what is given in the text to inform that refutation and, in some cases, perhaps give an idea of where Jackson’s understanding of the character could have come from—identify the source of the bias, basically.

Of course, this approach is deeply Tolkienesque. He carefully assigned texts to narrators or "loremasters," using those characters' perspectives to emphasize particular details and interpretations. Furthermore, he used his narrators' fallibility to explain discrepancies in the texts, much as Fernstrike describes doing. The most salient example of this is how Tolkien explained why Bilbo claims he was given the One Ring in the original edition of The Hobbit when the Ring was accidentally found and then stolen in LotR. The actual explanation for difference is of course banal: The Hobbit was written before LotR was even remotely conceived of, and in the enlarged story, it no longer made sense for Gollum to willingly forsake the Ring. The Ring needed to be stolen by Bilbo in LotR and so it was. The rationale, however, was located within Bilbo's character: He didn't want to admit to Gandalf that he stole the Ring, nor acknowledge its strange powers, so he made a false claim in the book he wrote about the episode, The Hobbit. Fernstrike describes a similar thought process in explaining Jackson's characterizations that misalign with the books: "The same way I would question why Pengolodh or Rumil or Bilbo or the scribes of Fourth Age Minas Anor have written something, and engage/subvert/appropriate that in fic, I look at Jackson’s telling of the events and ask why? How?"

The Anti-Jackson

Inspiration doesn't necessarily mean eagerly embracing Jackson's vision and using that vision to propel one's own creativity. Inspiration can come too as a counternarrative to Jackson's aesthetic, characterization, and storytelling choices. Both the 2015 and 2020 surveys included the item, "Writing fanfiction helps me correct what I view as mistakes in Peter Jackson's movies," which provides some perspective on authors who write against Jackson's interpretation and authority.

In the 2020 survey, 47% of participants agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "Writing fanfiction helps me to correct what I view as mistakes in Peter Jackson's movies." In 2015—as the Hobbit films left theaters but still very much permeated the fandom—this number was even higher: 53% of participants agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.

Among those authors who agreed or strongly agreed that the films encouraged them to write fanfiction, these numbers are even higher: 58% of these writers agreed or strongly agreed with the statement above in the 2020 survey. Clearly, for those who were nudged by the films to begin crafting stories of their own set in Middle-earth, their stories do more than express admiration for the films but also serve a critical function.

Part of the appeal of writing against Jackson is his outsized influence on the fandom. Although, as shown above, fans put very little stock in Jackson's authority compared to other sources of authority, his interpretation and vision of the legendarium cannot be avoided. One interview respondent, who asked to remain anonymous, noted that "there feels subconsciously to be a definite significance to making choices contrary to the Hobbit films, more so than there might be in choosing not to include something like a popular Silmarillion fanon" because of the films' prominence as official and high-budget adaptations.

The most popular example of writing contrary to Jackson is fix-it fic: stories that consider how the films would have turned out if Jackson's team had made different storytelling choices. The implication of the term fix-it fic, of course, is that those choices are in fact incorrect, and it is the fan author who is resetting the correct order in Middle-earth. Among the authors I interviewed, by far the two most common examples of fix-it fic kept characters alive who died in the films: Haldir in LotR and Thorin, Fili, and Kili in The Hobbit.

Fix-it fic doesn't just change events in the films. Other authors described placing different emphases than Jackson's team did, changing the tone and focus of the films. One author, who asked to remain anonymous, described making choices to downplay the Dwarves as comic relief in favor of emphasizing the effects of their displacement:

[W]hen writing about Dwarven characters, I try to make some of the adaptational choices that I wish had been in the films, even when they're not the focus of the narrative. … I see the Dwarves of Erebor, after Erebor's fall, as members of a marginalized diaspora, and I really would have appreciated more of that interpretation in the films, so I try to add it into my writing.

Among writers who both sought to reconcile and fix the films, both groups commonly acknowledged that their choices carried a critical intention. While in some cases a character needed to remain alive or a writer found appeal in a particular interpretation Jackson didn't use, in many cases, they saw their stories as a way to show how the films could have been different and, sometimes, where they fell short.

Beyond Jackson

And now we arrive back, full circle, to the first data point I presented: less than 1% of Tolkien fanfiction writers are pure movieverse writers. Nearly every author who took the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey used the books in their fanfiction, even those who primarily relied on the films.

This is another major use of the films: as an impetus to learn more about the legendarium beyond Jackson's presentation of it. This took myriad forms for different authors. Some picked up books (or returned to books). Others were more selective, using the books and other resources to research and fill in specific gaps from the films.

Some authors described how this reading and research took them beyond the films and into corners of the fandom devoted to books for which there is no film, such as The Silmarillion. Tinnurin provided one such response: "[The films have] been a jumping-off point for me writing stories from earlier ages (where I'm like, oh, Thranduil fought dragons? Okay, obviously that had to have happened in the First Age and now, whoops, I'm writing First Age fic), which has gotten me back into Silm fandom."

Both the survey data and interview responses illustrate a facet of a larger phenomenon identified by the survey data: the tendency of authors of Tolkien-based fanfiction to read more widely the longer they remain in the fandom. While many respondents identified the films as masterpieces in their own right, most fans still accepted the invitation posed by the books: to step forth deeper into Middle-earth and learn more about the legendarium.

Conclusion

I want to return to the stereotyped notion of the movieverse fan: a woman (usually young) driven by attraction to male actors and with little interest in or respect for the wider legendarium Tolkien created, producing formulaic, mindless, and sex-fueled stories aimed at gratifying personal fantasies.

I want to be clear that there is nothing wrong with the fan described above or her stories. However, the use of the films to produce fanfiction is far more complicated than the above.

Data and interviews show that fans' use of the films is complex. Writers who use the films in their fanfiction tend to appreciate the films. Many have strong attachments to them and enjoy them as works of art in their own right. And while they tend to put more stock in Jackson's vision of Middle-earth than bookverse-only writers do, their use of the films is far from mindlessly admiring. In other words, they do not dip the ladle blindly into the Cauldron of Story but make careful and thoughtful selections.

Several patterns emerged in how authors use the films. For some writers, the films elevated minor characters to a sweet spot where the writer gained enough details about a character—often visual details—to become interested in the character's story. Naturally, aesthetic details were important, with writers mentioning setting, character appearance and casting, costumes, props, and the soundtrack as elements of the films that inspired their fiction.

Authors almost universally described a critical and selective process as they chose details for their stories. Often, they selected between book and film versions, or developed stories that reconciled the two (or more) contradicting versions. Sometimes, they used stories to write against Jackson's version with a clear critical intent to show where the films could have been more successful by making different creative choices. Almost always, the effect of the film was to drive them to the books, whether to fill in specific gaps in their stories or to explore the legendarium more broadly (or a bit of both).

This series of articles about the effects of the films on the Tolkien fandom—and more specifically, the fanfiction community—was instigated by the rising attention (and anxiety) about the forthcoming Rings of Power series and its effect on Tolkien fan communities. So it is worthwhile to end with some takeaways where this question is concerned.

As I've written before, while comparing a film trilogy and a TV series is an imperfect comparison at best, fan reactions to and use of the film trilogies nonetheless suggest that Big Media adaptations of Tolkien have one major effect: They drive fans to the books. Furthermore, the data and interviews here, which focus on how fans use film adaptations, suggest that fans use the films thoughtfully and critically to embellish and comment on both the films and books. It is telling, for example, that the fans most likely to use fanfiction to "fix mistakes" in the films are those same fans for whom the films were their impetus to begin writing Tolkien-based fanfiction.

Tolkien's legendarium is deep and enchanting. Many millions of readers have been tantalized to venture into its furthest reaches. While I cannot claim access to Galadriel's Mirror and its glimpses of the future to know for sure, there is nothing to suggest that Rings of Power fans won't follow their movieverse predecessors along the same road into Middle-earth.

Acknowledgments

While I did not quote from everyone I interviewed, all of their responses informed my conclusions in this article. Thank you to arofili, blueberryrock, daughterofshadows, Fernstrike, Idrils_Scribe, Lalathea, Lferion, Jillian, julifolo, Ladys Chemin, Mattie, Razzy, tinnurin, Zhie, and the several respondents who chose to remain anonymous for talking with me about your work and answering my questions.

A special thank you to daughterofshadows, who helped signal boost my call for interviewees among Hobbit movieverse writers and helped me connect with almost a dozen people I otherwise would have never had the chance to talk to.

Works Cited

1. Several years ago, Robin Anne Reid reviewed an article of mine for a journal and commented on my use of "Jackson's trilogy" that the films in fact were the creative product of many more people than just Peter Jackson, most notably Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens—collaborators whose contributions are so often ignored and who are, probably not coincidentally, also women. Since then and very much appreciating Robin's comment, I have tried to do better with getting the reflexive "Jackson's trilogy" out of my vocabulary; however, it (and similar constructions) are so often a useful shorthand when discussing the films that I also want to acknowledge here that when I use it, it is as such and is in no way intended to suggest that the films are Peter Jackson's creative achievement alone.
2. I led off all conversations with a version of the following: "My starter questions are: How do you see your relationship to the films? How do the films inspire and inform (or not) the fanworks you create? But feel free to talk about whatever you want relative to the films and fic." When a conversation had wrapped up, I checked back in with the person to ensure I had their permission to use their responses in this article.
3. If you are wondering if there were any authors who didn't consider Tolkien's views but did consider Jackson's, there were twenty-five of them—about 5% of the participants who responded to both items.