The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies are being released on 4K ultra-high-definition Blu-ray for the first time.

• Read More: Lord Of The Rings TV series – everything we know so far

All six films from Peter Jackson’s hit fantasy series’ will arrive in their remastered form on December 1, with a 4K ultimate collectors’ edition set to follow next summer.

The special releases were announced today (October 7) by Sean Astin, who portrayed Samwise Gamgee in The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return Of The King (2003).

“I’m excited today to announce that Warner Bros. will be releasing the Hobbit trilogy and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy on 4K UHD on December 1st for the first time,” he said, going on to promise “the most incredible home-viewing experience possible”.

The actor also revealed that Peter Jackson oversaw the remastering process himself, before describing his time working with the director as “the adventure of a lifetime”.

“And the friendships that I made will last forever. Enjoy,” Astin concluded. You can see the full video above.

Meanwhile, filming recently resumed on Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings series in New Zealand following the coronavirus lockdown. Earlier today, it was reported that the show could be set to feature sex scenes and nudity.

Morfydd Clark, who has been cast as Young Galadriel in the Middle Earth reboot, recently told NME about the scale of the project.

“The amount of [people working] on this show is continually mind-blowing,” she said. “One guy’s job consists just of seeing how dust reacts to footsteps and breath! That would never have even crossed my mind before.”

Clark added: “Other than something like Marvel, I don’t think things could get much bigger than this.”