Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was one of the biggest games of 2025, so the logical next step for developer Warhorse Studios would be to begin work on a follow-up sooner rather than later. Well, that could still happen, but word has spread that its next blockbuster may take players to Middle-earth.

The noise resurfaced today, 31st March, on ResetEra (hat tip to Twisted Voxel), where user hiberner toujours pointed out the reportedly multi-studio Lord of the Rings game "funded by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office" (at least partially) that Insider Gaming had reported on in late 2025 is probably in the works at Warhorse, who would take on the lead studio role.

The source? A Polish podcast about Tolkien where the industry veteran Ryszard Chojnowski said he'd heard "from credible sources" Warhorse is the studio working on Embracer's huge Middle-earth bet. "Apparently, he heard it a couple months ago already and didn't believe it, but there have been more whispers about it recently."

If we circle back to Insider Gaming's original report, it was mentioned the "deal has been in the works since last year," meaning talks about ADIO's funding were underway in 2024. Dev has been moving for a while now, and the expectation is the untitled project will be an action game in third-person "designed, in a way, to compete with Hogwarts Legacy."

Even if the rumours turn out to be true, it probably will be a while before we hear or see anything official, but many players will no doubt find the news exciting. Though Warhorse has been hit with a number of controversies over the years, with the most recent one being the reported firing of a translator to be replaced by AI, the Kingdom Come games have been widely celebrated worldwide and sold millions of copies thanks to their hardcore approach to open-world RPG design conventions.

Last month, it was announced director Daniel Vávra was leaving development of future games at the studio behind to focus on the in-the-works movie adaptation. Deeper digging reveals recent job postings for a mystery project which is being built with Unreal Engine. If the rumoured LOTR is indeed a large multi-studio development effort and Warhorse's next game, both Vávra's exit and the listings make more sense, but stay tuned for updates.