Lord of the Rings trilogy becomes available on Netlix

The three movies total more than nine hours

(Youtube / New Line Cinema)

All three Lord of the Rings movies have now been made available on Netflix – meaning fans can now spend more than nine hours reliving the adventures of Sam and Frodo.

The streaming service first teased out the upcoming arrival of the cult trilogy on its platform in a somewhat cryptic tweet last week.

At the time, the platform expressed itself exclusively through emoji. It used the wizard symbol to represent Sir Ian McKellen's character Gandalf, as well as the diamond ring emoji to represent the infamous piece of jewellery that gave its name to the franchise.

The three movies debuted on Netflix on Thursday, much to the excitement of fans looking to immerse themselves again in the universe first created by JRR Tolkien in his fantasy series.

The Fellowship of the Ring, the first instalment of Peter Jackson's big screen adaptation, came out in 2001. It stars Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, the hobbit who inherits the malevolent One Ring and sets out to destroy it, Sean Astin as Frodo's loyal companion Sam, and Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. The movie, which runs for 178 minutes went on to earn four Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography.

The Two Towers, the second chapter in the series, followed in 2002 with a running time of 179 minutes. It won two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing, out of six nominations (including one for Best Picture).

The trilogy concluded in 2003 with The Return of the King. The 200-minute final chapter triumphed at the Academy Awards and won all 11 gongs for which it was nominated, including Best Picture, Best Director for Jackson, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.