Lego Group's Darryl Kelley believes that although whimsical Lego game humor has been injected into upcoming title Lego: The Lord of the Rings' darker source material, Middle-earth fans and Tolkien purists will still appreciate the game.

"It's kind of a darker game when it comes to Lord of the Rings, but that's the great opportunity for Lego; that we can bring that levity and humor into what could really be a serious situation," the development manager said in a recent interview with GameSpot. "But it's just the fact that a simple little movement or gesture from a Lego minifigure just completely lightens the moment and provides what would be more of a serious situation to a more hysterical moment."

The team at Traveller's Tales hasn't received any negative feedback from purists of J.R.R. Tolkien's original stories regarding Lego's humor, says Kelley, and there has been little to no deviation from the source material when it came to portraying Middle-earth and its inhabitants.

The Lego Group is currently working with Funcom on a Lego-centric massively multiplayer online game. Lego "felt that [Funcom] would be a good fit for what this project would entail," says Kelley.