I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollywood completely ignored the always present Christian influence on his writing. But make no mistake, Tolkien was also fascinated by mythology, particularly Norse mythology, which was pagan. I read his authorized biography a long time ago, and they were both overshadowing themes in his literary studies.
Tolkien’s impetus for writing was his belief that unlike the Romans, Greeks etc, the Ango-Saxons lacked a mythology. He thus set out to create his own
A shared love of Nordic Myth is what originally drew Lewis snd Tolkien together.
Tolkien was one of the leading authorities on Beowulf.
I first read Nordic Myth (The Sons of Odin) in 3rd grade. In 5th grade, I read The Hobbit, followed by The Lord of the Rings.
That was in 1968. There was no internet. I knew nothing about the author but what he wrote in his books.
I knew without a doubt before I finished the trilogy that he was a Christian. His works were only superficially like Nordic Myth.
On a deeper level, they were very moral, and not truly pagan. They were implicitly monotheistic. (The Silmarillion, written first but published posthumously, was explicitly monotheistic.)
The Valar are created spirits, somewhat like angels (or Lewis’s Oyarsi). Iluvatar is clearly the uncreated Creator of all.
He also included several Types of Christ in the trilogy: Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn - each exemplified an aspect: resurrected savior, selfless sacrifice, returning king.