LOTR Live: a map of Middle-earth that follows the film
- What
- A companion app for the Lord of the Rings films
- Status
- In development, not yet public
LOTR Live is a companion app for the Lord of the Rings films. As the movie plays, a map of Middle-earth keeps pace with it, showing where every character is and how they got there, with lore that appears at the moment it matters. The video above walks through the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring.
The idea came from a fan-made video that plotted the characters’ journeys alongside the extended editions. Having that context on a second screen made my next watch-through far better. It also had limits: it covered only the three extended films, it was hard to keep in sync with the movie, and the map could not be explored. LOTR Live is my answer to all three.
The project has since grown well beyond that first idea. It is becoming a community-driven project, with a wiki-style editor so that fans can add to it and improve it across films, editions, characters, locations, timelines, and lore.
What it does
- Playback that follows your filmChoose the film and the edition, theatrical or extended, and the map follows along. A progress bar, keyboard shortcuts, and timestamp entry make it easy to jump to any moment.
- Watch partiesA host starts a session, and everyone else joins with a QR code or a six-character code. Playback stays in sync on every device, and the host chooses who can control it.
- An interactive mapPan and zoom across Middle-earth in one of three themes: Parchment, Light, or Dark for a dark room. An optional auto-focus moves the map scene by scene, and a mini-map and search take you anywhere quickly.
- Live character locationsEvery character is on the map throughout the film. Select one to read about them or to follow them, turn on path lines to see their whole route, and keep track of who is carrying the One Ring.
- Locations and loreMarkers cover major and minor locations, including places the films never visit. Timed popups explain what is on screen, info panels stack up to be read at your own pace, and optional subtitles catch the hard-to-hear names.
- Built with the communityA wiki-style editor will let fans improve the experience. Anyone can suggest a change to a timeline, a location, or a piece of lore; editors make the changes, and admins publish them.
Where it stands
LOTR Live is not public yet. The system is running, and I’m building out and fine-tuning the features and the experience. The first goal is a complete build-out of the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring.
From there, the community will help complete the timelines for all six versions of the trilogy, theatrical and extended. The Hobbit films and the series could follow.