Few filmmakers have ever built a world quite like Peter Jackson. The New Zealand director spent more than a decade shaping J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth into one of the most beloved and technically ambitious cinematic achievements in modern history. His ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy has remained a cultural touchstone for over two decades, and its legacy was recently acknowledged when Jackson received an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, presented by none other than Elijah Wood. It was a celebration of a career defined by bold creative vision and a willingness to take staggering risks.
Jackson directed all three ‘Lord of the Rings‘ films, released between 2001 and 2003, before returning to Middle-earth to adapt ‘The Hobbit’ into a second trilogy, this time spread across three films released between 2012 and 2014. Both series performed massively at the box office, but the conversation around them has always been a little uneven. While the original trilogy is routinely placed among the greatest film achievements of its era, the prequel series has faced a more complicated reception, with critics and fans often debating whether the material was stretched too thin across three full-length features.
It was during his Cannes appearance that Jackson shared an anecdote that cut right to the heart of that debate, and he could not have told it with better comic timing. During an on-stage appearance at Cannes, Jackson recalled how a FedEx delivery driver pulled up to his home, recognized him, and praised ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a fantastic film. The driver then turned back toward his van, stopped, and suggested that the studio should have hired Jackson to direct ‘The Hobbit’ movies, calling them crap. He had no idea he was speaking to the very person responsible for both.
Jackson explained how he handled the moment, saying he simply waited, rolled his eyes, and replied, “Yeah, tell me about it, mate.” The self-deprecating punchline landed perfectly with audiences at Cannes and has since spread rapidly across social media, earning widespread affection for its honesty and humor.
The story resonates partly because the gap between the two trilogies in critical terms is genuinely stark. On Rotten Tomatoes, the critic scores for ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ ‘The Two Towers,’ and ‘The Return of the King‘ sit at 92%, 95%, and 94% respectively, while ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,’ ‘The Desolation of Smaug,’ and ‘The Battle of the Five Armies‘ land at 64%, 74%, and 59%. That final installment’s score dips below the “Fresh” threshold entirely, something no film in the original trilogy came anywhere close to.
Jackson has been candid before about the production pressures that shaped the prequel trilogy. The director previously admitted he was essentially winging it during key parts of the shoot, with scripts that were not finished to his liking when filming began on ‘The Battle of the Five Armies.’ Given all of that behind-the-scenes turbulence, the willingness to laugh about the results with a complete stranger speaks to a genuine self-awareness that fans have found endearing.
Meanwhile, the Middle-earth universe continues to expand, with Andy Serkis set to direct ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,’ a film Jackson is producing, describing it as an internal story about Gollum’s psychology and addiction that only Serkis could tell. With fresh chapters on the horizon, it seems the franchise Jackson built is very much alive, even if one particular chapter of it will forever be the one his FedEx driver thought somebody else made. Whether you think the ‘Hobbit’ films were unfairly maligned or genuinely deserved the criticism, drop your verdict in the comments below.