The Lord Of The Rings: Trials Of Saruman Revealed With 2026 Release Date

Ever since Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings has enjoyed a resplendent era of renewed pop culture interest. Between series like Shadows of Mordor and the ongoing indomitable nature of The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), it’s always been around in some capacity, beyond the scope of the original stories by J.R.R. Tolkien.

While there has been some pushback against specific themes and locales being used in other subcreated stories, some of them do get to the heart of what makes Middle-earth tick. Some Lord of the Rings games give players the tools to live out their fantasies in Middle-earth, with painstaking detail and respect for the world.

It looks like another one of those stories is popping up in the near future, thanks to a new reveal. On X, a new Lord of the Rings project was just announced, and it’s coming a lot sooner than expected.

Free League’s Lord of the Rings RPG is getting another release this year. Trials of Saruman is due out in June 2026 and contains six adventures for players.

Taking place from the year 2965 in The Lord of the Rings timeline, roughly to the events of Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return of the King. Free League’s RPG allows players to tell their own stories through a 5th Edition adaptation of The One Ring RPG. In the case of Trials of Saruman, it takes place before his fall, and hints at possibly saving him from his path.Free League has a few preview pages up on the game’s official listing, and showcases the name of Chapter 1: The Beast of Dunland.Here’s the breakdown of the narrative, tonally: “He is great among the Wise. He is the chief of my order and the head of the Council. His knowledge is deep, but his pride has grown with it, and he takes ill any meddling.“

There’s been a boon of Lord of the Rings content in recent years, more so than any other era before it. The film trilogy helped kick off the renewed interest, but there have been numerous projects across all media beyond that scope, including countless video games and tabletop iterations.

There’s also the massively budgeted TV series Rings of Power, which is about to debut its third season in the coming months. It’s been a busy time for the Lord of the Rings license, as new content for existing games is being released as often as new project announcements.

If you’re an RPG fan, though, there are lots of options when it comes to The Lord of the Rings stories. Now you’ll have an extra choice when June rolls around.

Cast

Norman Bird, Anthony Daniels, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Brad Dourif, Karl Urban, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Morfydd Clark, Mike Wood, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Charlie Vickers, Markella Kavenagh, Megan Richards, Sara Zwangobani, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Lenny Henry, Brian Cox, Shaun Dooley, Miranda Otto, Bilal Hasna, Benjamin Wainwright, Luke Pasqualino, Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt

Created by

J.R.R. Tolkien