LotR and Hobbit - one series or two?

Question

In Wikipedia, it is stated that The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are two different film series.

However, the film series itself is described as "a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series".

But as everybody knows, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit share the same universe. So, from my point of view, it will be more correct to refer to them as one big series, divided into two smaller ones.

Is this a correct assumption?

(I'm not a big fan of LotR movies itself. My interest is about film series (aka film franchises) in general. The logical system of how they divided/subdivided.)

Answer 1

Either interpretation could be correct.

But since you can watch either group of films without the other it wouldn't be really correct to call all 6 films one series....at least in my opinion.

To my mind...there are two series of films LOTR & TH which happen to share a universe.

Answer 2

Ultimately this seems to come down to the definition of "series".

It's two distinct film trilogies - each with their own story arcs and sets of characters - within one larger franchise.

Answer 3

They are the same as both occur during Tolkien's "Third Age", and the Lord Of The Rings is a continuation of the story of the Ring, from finding it during the Hobbit, to ending in the LOTR. You can also look at it as seperate because of the limited time of Bilbo's character during LOTR. But in essence, I would say it can be considered 1 series, kind of like the Star Wars series!