My hope is that the initial Middle-Earth land is on the scale of Hosgmeade, London, and Diagon Alley combined. Something in the 20-acre range, featuring multiple iconic locations, in close proximity, with around 2-3 e-tickets right off the bat. I know that's a stretch, but IMO it's the only way you can truly capture the scope and magic of Middle-Earth, and it'd be an awesome way to one-up both WWoHP and Galaxy's Edge.
My wishlist for the land is:
- The Shire is the first area guests enter, and it's around the same size as Hogsmeade, minus the Forbidden Journey half of the land. Here, you can get Hobbit-themed merch options, dine at a Hobbit-themed all you can eat buffet, and ride a c-ticket dark ride. The "dark ride" is basically like the rumored Yoshi attraction at SNW; except instead of boarding a Yoshi, you board a horseless carriage that was enchanted by Gandalf. This travels a bit outside, adding kinetic energy to the area, and a bit inside, showing a few show scenes of a Hobbit festival.
- Once guests walk past the smaller, secluded Shire, the land opens up in size and scope, showing a massive landscape inspired by the films. The locations of Rivendell and Mordor can be seen in the distance, and can be walked over to and explored. Along this path, guests can also dine at the Inn of the Prancing Pony, a quick service dining spot.
- Rivendell is similar in size and seclusion to Diagon Alley, and features more unique shopping and dining, iconic and beautiful architecture, and the queue for one of the two main e-tickets of the land. I'm not sure what the attraction would be story-wise, but I'd picture it being LOTR's equivalent to Forbidden Journey.
- Mordor is actually the least elaborate of these three locations, because IMO, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for us "normal humans" to be able to explore, shop, and dine in a land full of evil orcs. Instead, Mordor mainly features the iconic Dark Tower, which houses a next-gen drop ride which gives the Tower of Terror a run for its money. The queue for the attraction begins along the Black Gate, with guests entering the "secret passage" into Mordor. That is, until we reach a pre-show where guests are "captured" by orcs and sentenced to death inside the fires of Mordor... hence the drop tower aspect.