THR (the listed author):
It’s unclear if the fan-made film helped inspire WB’s project. But one suspects that the popularity of the video game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which was released last year, was at least part of the project’s inspiration.
The game received negative reviews from critics and was ranked by Metacritic as the worst game of 2023.
Its poor reception and sales caused Daedalic Entertainment to cancel plans for a second Lord of the Rings game and close their development division, laying off their staff and moving to a publishing-only model.