The Lord of the Rings (film)/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Academy Award: ROTK is in a three-way tie with Titanic and Ben-Hur for the most Oscars won by a single film -- eleven. Moreover, the film series The Lord of the Rings won more Oscars than any other film series.
    • Despite all of the series' wins and nominations, the trilogy's cast was snubbed: the only acting Oscar nomination was Ian McKellen for the first film. Most notably, Andy Serkis was not eligible for being nominated for best supporting actor because his character was CGI.
      • Granted, it could be less of an Award Snub and more a case of "we can't decide just who to give it to." Every actor spent years working on these films. By Return Of The King, they weren't acting anymore, they had become their characters. You try narrowing it to just one person who deserves an award more than the rest.
    • Peter Jackson was still putting the finishing touches on the extended cut of Return of the King when it won Best Picture, prompting him to muse in one behind-the-scenes clip how he could still be working on a film that has already won Best Picture.
  • Actor Allusion: In the first movie, Elrond sure liked expressing his disgust of the human race.
  • All-Star Cast: A staggering list of recognizable names in the cast, not to mention that these movies made recognizable the names of every actor in them whose names hadn't been beforehand.
  • Author Phobia: Peter Jackson actually used his own phobia of spiders to measure the effectiveness of Shelob's design and animations.
  • Backed by the Pentagon: The New Zealand army in this case. Heck, parts of Mordor were from old mine fields (that were swept beforehand), since they had enough ash to make the look needed.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty: People often don't remember Aragorn's speech before the Black Gates quite right--possibly they're remembering the version in the trailer, which was from a different take. Théoden's speeches get this too, to a lesser extent.
  • Cast the Expert:
    • In addition to the lead actors who were trained on horses, and numerous digital extras, the Riders of Rohan were portrayed by regular horse riders from all across New Zealand who came with their own horses to act as extras.
    • For The Return of the King, The New Zealand Army provided extras for the final battle in front of the Black Gate. Behind the scenes commentary on the DVD's makes note of how good they were as following directions and setting up formations, as well as how much enthusiasm they brought to the combat scenes.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: The Japanese dub have a cast of very well-know voice actors playing some of the main characters:
  • Media Research Failure: Nazgûls = flying reptiles? So say every popular media on the subject. So distressingly common that Peter Jackson and many cast and crew bought into it. No wonder the Witch-King's dialogue with Eowyn was omitted... it makes no sense under this interpretation.
    • Nazgûls are the Ring Wraiths themselves, the flying reptiles are their mounts/steeds, described as "Fell Beasts".
    • The "bow guy" is something else, too.
    • A distressing amount of people seem to believe that the Witch-King of Angmar is Sauron himself. Must be the helmet he wore at Pelennor Fields.
      • His helmet was actually changed to the one seen in the movie, since his original helmet was even more similar in design to Sauron's, and they were afraid people would get confused. You can still see the original helmet in the video game, though.
  • Dawson Casting: In the Prologue, Sir Ian Holm is very briefly seen wearing a dark, curly wig, as Bilbo 50 years younger. The effect is, unfortunately, that of a 60-ish actor wearing a dark, curly wig. Mercifully, the shot is only a few seconds long.
  • Deleted Scene: Many put back in the extended editions, but some were still left out.
  • Executive Meddling: Subverted. Jackson anticipated only being able to greenlight one or two movies so his writing team wrote the initial treatment accordingly. When the producers saw it they said "What are you doing? This is three movies." And this before Hollywood was obsessed with cranking out trilogies.
  • Fatal Method Acting: Averted, thankfully, but nonetheless a close call for Viggo Mortensen, who was pulled under by a current and nearly drowned while filming the river scene in TTT.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson Baggins. And yes, he's wearing a dress again. Sort of, anyway.
  • Life Imitates Art: According to behind the scenes material, Viggo Mortensen was a natural leader of the actors and film crew. Sean Astin also ended up more or less taking care of Elijah Wood during filming.
  • The Other Darrin: A very odd instance of this trope, as Andy Serkis plays Gollum in all three films, but the CG model used for the first film has quite a different face from that used in the other two. As Gollum is only seen in long shots (and very dark lighting) in the first film, it's not glaringly obvious, but it is noticeable.
  • The Other Marty: Stuart Townsend was cast as Aragorn, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen a few days before filming supposedly for being too young.
  • Talking to Himself: John Rhys-Davis plays Gimli and voices Treebeard.
    • Lawrence Makoare has a scene between himself as Gothmog and himself as the Witch King.
    • The Gollum & Smeagol conversations are sort of this trope.
  • Throw It In: Viggo Mortenson couldn't get the cry of grief and anger right at the scene when the trio think Merry and Pippin were killed. One shot he kicked a helmet and broke his toe. The scream actually fit the mood perfectly, and was used in the final cut.
    • In a scene at the beginning of the first movie, when Gandalf visits Bilbo at Bag End, Ian McKellen inadvertently bumps his head against a wooden beam in the low ceiling. Although unintentional, the actor managed to make the little accident look perfectly natural and very funny, and so it was kept in the final cut.
    • According the the wiki, the scene where Aragorn deflects Lurtz's thrown knife was an accident. Lurtz was apparently scripted to miss, but the actor accidentally threw the knife right at Viggo, who managed to deflect it with his sword.
      • That whole fight scene is an instance of this trope. That headbutt? Completely real. Aragorn getting punched in the ribs? That punch wasn't pulled. Aside from any stab wounds incurred, Lawrence Makaore and Viggo Mortensen were actually beating the crap out of each other. It was mainly because the make-up Makaore was wearing obscured his vision, and the punches that were supposed to be pulled ended up actually connecting. Mortensen just figured that it would be best if he just fought back just as hard rather than yelling cut.
    • At first Viggo Mortenson couldn't get the cry of grief and anger right at the scene when the trio think Merry and Pippin were killed. In the final take, he kicked a helmet and broke two of his toes. That's why he screamed and fell to his knees. The scream actually fit the mood perfectly, and was the one used in the final cut.
    • In Helm's Deep, the army of orcs stomping their feet and weapons before battle was entirely unscripted. It all happened because one of the actors playing the orcs got bored and began stomping his feet and weapons. Then other orc-actors took notice and began to do the same thing. Before long, they all did it, which led to Peter Jackson throwing it in.
    • When Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli first arrive at Edoras, there is a shot of a Rohirrim flag fluttering to the ground. The flag had simply slipped loose due to the wind but Peter Jackson threw it in because he liked the symbolism.
    • The "rat catcher's cottage" in Minas Tirith. The build team interpreted one of Alan Lee's drawings of a building as having a dead rat hanging in the window, and based an entire house around the idea that the Official Gondorian Rat Catcher lived there. Alan Lee maintains he didn't have something so specific in mind when he did the sketch, but then he realized that it was completely logical: after all, a medieval city the size of Minas Tirith would have a rat problem.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Arwen was originally planned to be at Helm's Deep, giving Aragorn his sword Anduril, the Flame of the West, and also fighting alongside him.
    • The idea of Sauron taking form (specifically Kate Winslet's form - The Eye was really Bishonen back in the day) and almost kicking Aragorn's ass at the final battle was also briefly entertained, and then mercifully abandoned in place of a troll.
    • The episode with Ghan-Buri-Ghan and the Wood Woses (who were hunted and killed by the Rohirrim for sport) was cut out... but we have a production still of what he would have looked like.
      • Looks awful blue-skinned. In the book, the Gondorians were encroaching on their forest to mine it. Hmmm... Yeah, Tolkien did it first.[1]
    • The movies were originally planned as duology because Jackson thought making a trilogy was going to be a hard sell. Thankfully, when he pitched it as a duology to New Line, they responded with "why do you want to make two movies?" and just as Jackson was about to launch into his defense of why it couldn't possibly be done in one film, they continued... "this is three movies."
    • Stuart Townsend was actually cast as Aragorn and in New Zealand filming. A couple of days in they realized it wasn't going to work out and called up Viggo Mortensen. There's even a still of him in character. um... Yeah.
      • Jackson didn't realize until four days into filming that Aragorn should be an older, mature type.
    • Sean Astin lobbied for his father, John Astin, to be given the part of Gandalf.
    • When Mirimax was unable to finance the original two films, they tried to get them meshed into one two-hour movie. Thankfully, Jackson understandably considered this to be "cutting out half the good stuff." Apparently it was suggested that they:
      • Shorten Rivendell and Moria
      • Cut Bree and the Battle of Helm's Deep
      • "Lose or use" Saruman
      • Merge Rohan and Gondor with Eowyn as Boromir's sister
      • As well as having Ents prevent the Uruk-hai kidnapping Merry and Pippin. Jesus.
      • Luckily, New Line was more than happy to dish out the money to finance the project as three films, not just one. Guess who has three movies that rank on the best-of-all-time list now.
    • Frodo was originally gonna push Gollum and the Ring into the lava.
      • There was also another take that was true to the book - namely, that Gollum, while celebrating getting the ring back, slips and falls off the edge. They decided to Take a Third Option and go with the take that's in the movie.
    • There was going to be a river rapids scene in the first film when the Fellowship was traveling by boat. However, real life wrote the plot when the equipment the crew was going to use was washed away or ruined by flood waters.
    • The tenor of the times in 2002 compelled them to actually cut out a lot of material that mostly served to humanize the other races, such as the bit with the Southron or the conversations with orcs. (The writers said that people felt it necessary to show that the villains were "irredeemably evil").
    • You know that song at the end of The Two Towers that's sung by someone who sounds an awful lot like Björk? Well, the original idea was for her to sing it, but she was pregnant at the time and declined the invitation. They used another Icelandic singer, Emilíana Torrini, instead.
    • The Balrog was going to be shown after falling in the water with its fire gone out and covered in slime.
    • Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke were being considered for Eowyn and Eomer. Thurman initially accepted the offer but had to cancel due to pregnancy.
    • Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Gandalf, but turned it down because he didn't like the first script. (Another version of this says he "didn't understand the story".) Russell Crowe was another actor who turned down a role from this movie (as Aragorn) because he didn't like the shooting schedule.
    • Christopher Lee originally auditioned for the role of Gandalf.


  1. ↑ David Boyle wrote: "The good Woses have disappeared completely from the narrative, with their implicit message that indigenous peoples, too, are folk worthy of respect. If there are Maori experts on Tolkien..."
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