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“I can’t carry it for you.” —Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Photo: New Line/Peacock
Not the preciousss! The extended edition of Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King disappeared from its streaming home on Max this month, and as of publication time, the movie is still missing from the service. Redditors who devotedly rewatch these films every year first noticed the omission on January 1, despite the fact that Jackson’s other extended editions of the LOTR trilogy, as well as his extended cuts of the Hobbit films, remained on the service. So did the theatrical editions of Return of the King and the other films. (Also, the extended edition wasn’t listed on the usual “what’s leaving Max” lists for this month.)
A source at Max confirmed to Vulture that this was the result of a “tech issue” and that the film would be back on the service soon. The sudden disappearing act of just one of the films in the franchise and not the rest felt weird to begin with; usually when these films depart a streaming service, they do so as a package deal. But whether this was intentional or not, we’ve been here with Max before. Both 2022 and 2023 were big years for cost-saving sudden disappearances from the service formerly known as HBO Max. More recently, in a similar mishap, Max confused fans of the HBO series Watchmen by removing the show in a technical glitch, then putting it back and clarifying that it had made an oopsie. Here’s hoping the fellowship can get back together soon.
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