Line #160 Trivia/TheLordOfTheRings


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	[[folder:General trivia]]
4	* BabyNameTrendStarter: Since the 1960s, naming your child after a character from The Lord of the Rings has been something of a trend for aging hippies and nerds. "Galadriel" has been on the US popular name list since 1969.
5	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The Dutch version of the trilogy was named ''In de Ban van de Ring'' which translates to 'Enthralled by the Ring'. ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' was simply named ''De Reisgenoten'', translating to 'The Travelling companions'.
6	* FollowTheLeader: It started the modern (Western/European-esque) fantasy genre as we know it, and indirectly started role playing games as we know them too. The live action movies led the way for more film adaptations based on epic fantasy books.
7	* FountainOfExpies:
8	** Gandalf is up there with Merlin in some circles.
9	** If a character in a fantasy novel is a noble warrior who hangs out in the wilderness, there's about a 50/50 chance he was inspired by either Aragorn or Myth/RobinHood.
10	** The "elf ranger" archetype in fantasy descends almost solely from Legolas.
11	** Along with Thorin from ''The Hobbit'', Gimli is the iconic fantasy dwarf.
12	** After the publication of ''The Lord of the Rings'', it became ''de rigueur'' for the villain in a high fantasy story to be a manipulative, rarely-seen EvilOverlord who lives in a dark tower in an evil realm, employs various horrible creatures to do his work, and is dependent on an artifact of his making for power and survival. In fact, that's the TV Tropes summary for HighFantasy, a genre which existed long before Tolkien was born and often included quests or journeys, but not necessarily any of the rest. In fact, much High Fantasy didn't even ''have'' a villain as such. See Creator/LinCarter's book ''Imaginary Worlds, the Art of Fantasy'' for more on this subject.
13	* HeyItsThatSound: In the BBC adaptation, each time that the Eagles arrive (when Gandalf escapes Orthanc, and on Mount Doom), the sound effect used is almost identical to a [[Series/DoctorWho TARDIS]].
14	* ShrugOfGod
15	** Tolkien deliberately left Tom Bombadil's true nature obscure. Fan debate has raged for decades, and probably always will.
16	---> "Even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."
17	** Whether Sam killed Shelob or not is left a mystery.
18	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheLordOfTheRings See subpage]].
19	[[/folder]]
20
21	[[folder:The novel]]
22	* AccentDepundent: One of Sam's relatives is "Halfast Gamgee"[[note]]The "cousin Hal" who saw a "Tree-man" walking on the northern moors[[/note]]. American commentators suggested this was a pun drawing attention to the character being a little bit of a dolt to his Shire neighbours. British readers went "huh?" as they couldn't see it (Halfast = Half-assed), since Creator/JRRTolkien and other Brits would probably say "half-arsed" instead. Although Tolkien ''does'' make that joke - with the name of Sam himself - "samwise" meaning "half-wise" in Old English. In fact LOTR is ''stuffed'' with [[BilingualBonus obscure philological puns]] which go right over the heads of readers who don't have Tolkien's level of expertise.
23	* CreatorBacklash:
24	** J.R.R. Tolkien grew to dislike ''The Lord of the Rings'' mostly because of the extreme obsessiveness of its fans, saying they were "involved in the stories in a way that I'm not" and referring to them as "my deplorable cultus". He also resented that his publishers demanded a sequel to ''The Hobbit'' rather than letting him print ''The Silmarillion'', which was much more dear to him.
25	** Hippies and students first discovered the book via the unauthorized, inexpensive Ace paperback edition, and there were apparently other pulp bootleg editions as well,[[note]]Inexpensive photocopying was just starting to become available and it's possible that photocopies of LOTR were being passed around as well[[/note]] which spread like wildfire on college campuses: then the authorized [[http://lotrscrapbook.bookloaf.net/gallery/bookcovers/pages/04.htm Ballantine paperback edition]] came out. All these things created the massive "psychedelic fandom" for the book in TheSixties[[note]]Frodo Lives! Gandalf for President![[/note]] (see MemeticMutation). JRRT loathed paperbacks, and in fact was quite unsettled to learn that American counter-culture was embracing his work. But he took advantage of the young people's devotion to compose his own bit of CreatorBacklash for the authorized Ballantine edition, in the form of a written TakeThat: "This edition, and no other, was authorized by me... those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it, and no other."\
26	To their credit, the college students mounted a campaign of protest against the unauthorized editions after Tolkien made a point of mentioning, in his responses to fan mail, that he was being royally ripped off by the Ace publishers and did not receive a single cent in royalties from any American LOTR paperbacks other than the Ballantine edition. (Ace Books, the main offender among the pulp bootleggers, were harassed sufficiently by angry fans that they made a point of paying a massive royalty check to Tolkien and withdrawing their edition of ''LOTR'' from print.) [[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/unauthorized-lord-rings/ More on the unauthorized editions here.]]
27	** Ironically, the covers for the Ace edition showed that the artist had read the novel and knew what he was doing, while Barbara Remington for Ballantine hadn't had time and just created a whimsical-looking alien landscape for Book I (Books II and III are somewhat closer to the right spirit).
28	** Parodied in the ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'' inscription, based on the one up top: "This Ring, and no other / was made by the Elves -- / Who'd pawn their own mother / to get it themselves." In fact, the first edition included a direct parody of the author's warning stating that the intention of ''Bored'' was to make money off the pop-culture colossus that ''LOTR'' was becoming, and declaring that "Those who approve of courtesy to a certain author will not touch this gobbler with a ten-foot battle lance."
29	* CreatorsFavorite: Tolkien named Samwise Gamgee as his favourite character, going so far as to name him the real hero of the story.
30	* {{Defictionalization}}:
31	** Caradhras, Orthanc, Dol Goldur [sic!], and the Mindolluin Crag are [[http://books.google.com/books?id=-ukAUElJXPIC&pg=PA287&lpg=PA287&dq=caradhras+cascades&source=bl&ots=euSEc07JNO&sig=Hvzq9zLCQ-TW9XT8BqDLAbRprsU&hl=en&ei=Nl8dTd_jHZDCsAOPu72TCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false real places]] in [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Washington State]]. Two climbers (and Tolkien fans) in the 1960s were the first to climb a segment of mountains in the Cascade range and thus ensured naming rights.
32	** "Lothlorien" is the former name of the thriving nature sanctuary/spiritual retreat (or non-Wiccan Fairy Faith/hippie commune) in Lawrence County, Indiana.[[note]]Don't ever let anyone tell you that Indiana is only RightWingMilitiaFanatic gun-toting lunatics. It has a long, proud Progressive, Democratic Socialist and LGBT history, and pagan/earth-based faiths are easy to find.[[/note]] Its founding documents were a poetic combination of Tolkien's idealism toward nature and "Christ Light" doctrine, making it a really NewAgeRetroHippie establishment. Today, it's called [[http://www.elvinhome.org/index.php Elvin H.O.M.E.]]
33	* ExecutiveMeddling:
34	** Tolkien and his publisher went back and forth about the titles of the books, with Tolkien suggesting many different possibilities for both the three published volumes and the six narrative books (including some subsequently used by Christopher Tolkien like "The Return of the Shadow" and "The Treason of Isengard", and some very [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literal]] ones such as "The Ring Goes East"). Tolkien finally settled on "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The War of the Ring" for the volumes, and left the narrative books untitled. The publisher overruled him and went with "Return of the King" for the third volume despite Tolkien arguing that it was a {{spoiler}} for anyone picking up the series.
35	** Executive Meddling is also what caused this novel to be written. After the success of ''Literature/TheHobbit'', Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin, asked if he had anything else written. Tolkien sent him a packet of writings, including a work-in-progress of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', but Unwin ended up turning down everything except ''Farmer Giles of Ham''. Instead, Stanley Unwin pointed out that readers loved ''The Hobbit'' and so he suggested that Tolkien write a sequel featuring more Hobbits. After mulling over the idea, Tolkien eventually came around and wrote the first chapter of a sequel.
36	* ExtremelyLengthyCreation: It was mostly written between 1937 and 1949. The appendices and final edits weren't completed until 1955. In total it took around 18 years to finish.
37	* FlipFlopOfGod: On the relationship between orcs and goblins. At first Tolkien said that "orc" was simply the hobbit word for goblin. Later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc. Later still he said that goblins were completely separate creatures from orcs. This applies in regard to the origins of Orcs as well, as mentioned under AmbiguouslyHuman above and RiddleForTheAges below. Tolkien had great trouble settling on an answer of whether they were corrupted Elves, corrupted Men, minor spirits given physical humanoid shape by Morgoth and/or Sauron, or some combination of all three (depending on the type of Orc in question). It seems he never found an origin story that fully satisfied him.
38	* ReferencedBy:
39	** The source code for Perl 5 contains several quotes from ''The Lord of the Rings'' (and one quote from ''Literature/TheHobbit''). Most users of Perl 5 never look at the source code and never see these quotes. The file [[http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/blob/HEAD:/mathoms.c mathoms.c]] contains artefacts kept only for compatibility. It quotes the Prologue of ''The Lord of the Rings'', about how the hobbits kept mathoms.
40	** The Music/LedZeppelin songs "Misty Mountain Hop", "Ramble On", "Stairway to Heaven", "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "Battle of Evermore" all refer to people, places and situations in the books. But they are only the best known references. There are thousands of others. Tom Rapp, Pearls Before Swine's frontman, set most of the "Three rings for the Elven-kings..." lyric to music, called it "Ring Thing" and put it on the ''Balaklava'' album. The men's choral pop group [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Association The Association]][[note]]perhaps best remembered for "Along Comes Mary", "Windy" and "Never My Love"[[/note]] had a soft song called "Toymaker" with these lines: "Picture book, Pippin Took/Taking a look." There have been several bands called the Hobbits and a number of albums with titles like ''Middle-earth'', ''Lothlorien'' and so on. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_inspired_by_J._R._R._Tolkien#Rock_music Much more here.]]
41	** In ''Literature/ChakonaSpace,'' the Gene Wars produced a race of PlagueMaster SuperSoldiers (Death Guard? What's that?) named Saurons, who were quarantined on the planet Mordor.
42	** The meteorological offices of the UK and Ireland have been naming winter storms since 2015. The first storm of the 2021/2022 season was Storm Arwen.
43	** Mountains on [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn Titan]], Saturn's largest moon, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geological_features_on_Titan#Montes have been named after those of Middle Earth]] (yes, Titan has a Mount Doom too.)
44	** The ''Fanfic/CorEtCerebrum'' instalment "The Furthest From Home We've Ever Been" takes its title from a line in ''Lord of the Rings''.
45	* PublisherChosenTitle: The publisher meddled with the titles of the three volumes. Tolkien wanted the last one to be named ''The War of the Ring'' to avoid {{spoiler}}s, but it didn't get through.
46	* RealitySubtext: The story is not an allegory; Tolkien rebutted this by laying out what an allegory ''would'' have been. But there is a distinct tonal shift between ''The Hobbit'', which started as a story for his young children, and ''The Lord of the Rings'', whose chapters he sometimes sent to his son Christopher while Christopher was serving as an [=RAF=] pilot in the African theater of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The influence of World War I on his creative mind is also easy to see.
47	* ScienceImitatesArt:
48	** Gandalf has provided a name for both the flatworm genus ''Gandalfia'' and the crab genus ''Gandalfus''.
49	** ''Anthracosuchus balrogus'' is a genus of crocodile-like reptiles that received both its genus ("coal crocodile") and its species names as references to having first been discovered in the depths of a mine.
50	* SequelGap: ''Literature/TheHobbit'' (1937) was followed by ''The Lord of the Rings'' (three volumes, 1954-1955), 17 years later.
51	* SleeperHit: The novel's sales really didn't take off until the '60s, when it was embraced by the counterculture. The publisher expected to lose money but decided to publish anyway. The final decision came by telegram: "If you believe it is a work of genius then you may lose a thousand pounds".
52	* SparedByTheCut: Pippin was originally going to be squashed by a troll during the Battle at the Black Gate. Creator/CSLewis managed to talk Tolkien out of it.
53	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheLordOfTheRings See subpage]] again.
54	* WordOfGod: The appendices are only the start; Tolkien's son has edited together and published fifteen volumes from his notes.
55	* WorkingTitle: Each of the six books of ''The Lord of the Rings'' was planned to have an individual title. The first book was going to be ''The First Journey'', ''The Ring Sets Out'', or ''The Return of the Shadow''. Book two was going to be ''The Journey of the Nine Companions'', or ''The Ring Goes South''. Book three was going to be ''The Treason of Isengard''. Book four was going to be ''The Journey of the Ring-bearers'', or ''The Ring Goes East''. Book five was going to be ''The War of the Ring''. Book six was going to be ''The End of the Third Age''.
56	* WriteWhoYouKnow: Creator/JRRTolkien based on Treebeard on his friend and colleague Creator/CSLewis.
57	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Except for the climactic scene at the Cracks of Doom, Tolkien was pretty much deciding how the story would go as he went along, and often seemed to be as surprised by the plot twists as his characters were. Many chapters show frequent rewriting as new ideas came to the fore. (For example, he explicitly stated that meeting Faramir in Ithilien was as much a surprise to him as it was to Frodo and Sam.)
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Ralph Bakshi version]]
61	* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: Unlike the Rankin-Bass and Peter Jackson versions, Aragorn doesn't have a beard and it's never specified in the book that he has one. After the movie came out, it was arguably implied in ''Literature/UnfinishedTalesOfNumenorAndMiddleEarth'' (1980) that Aragorn would have been beardless because of his Elf ancestors despite being human. However, the quoted and summarized passage doesn't name him specifically, as it speaks of those Men descended from Elves in a general sense, and focuses on Prince Imrahil who has more recent Elvish ancestry than Aragorn. Some decades later, the full writing about this was published in ''The Nature of Middle-earth'' (2021), confirming that Aragorn was also explicitly said to be beardless, along with Boromir, Faramir and Denethor.
62	* ExecutiveMeddling:
63	** There was a concern that audiences would confuse "Saruman" with "Sauron". So Aruman was used. That could be understandable, but then the movie keeps switching between ''Saruman'' and Aruman.
64	** It was also the studio's decision to lie in all the marketing about the film being the "complete" story, which Bakshi was livid about and accurately predicted the fans would be pissed off as well.
65	* RealLifeRelative:
66	** Frodo and Pippin are cousins, and are played by brothers Christopher and Dominic Guard.
67	** The Japanese dub is a rather curious case, as while both actors are relatives and dubbed the same film, they didn't participate in the same [[DuelingDubs dubbed version]]: Creator/GoroNaya voiced Aragorn in the in the theatrical dubbed version, while his brother Creator/RokuroNaya voiced Gollum in the home video version.
68	* RoleReprise: Three years after the film was released, Michael Graham Cox and Peter Woodthorpe reprised their roles as Boromir and Gollum for the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation.
69	* StarDerailingRole: John Hurt, Anthony Daniels, Simon Chandler and Philip Stone (Aragorn, Legolas, Merry and Theoden, respectively) were more or less the only actors in this movie who were still able to get good acting work after its release. The rest of the cast mostly all went on to play bit parts in low-profile films or TV series (though others remained prominent on the radio). Most notable is Sam's voice actor, Michael Scholes, who, including this film, only has four acting credits to his name on [=IMDb=], all except one in 1978, meaning that his career only lasted roughly a year.
70	* StarMakingRole: This was the first time Creator/PattyMaloney worked as a voice actress, though [=IMDb=] doesn't specify her character.
71	* StillbornFranchise: Due to ExecutiveMeddling.
72	* TroubledProduction: This was one of Bakshi's less problematic productions, but that's not saying much. Bakshi feuded with producer Saul Zaentz throughout production, the initial screenplay had to be heavily rewritten -- with the new writer, Peter S. Beagle, doing so for a derisory sum in exchange for guaranteed work on Zaentz's other productions...which he never received -- and Bakshi decided to shoot the whole thing in live action and just rotoscope over it to save time, only to discover that he'd ended up making the scenes far too complex to rotoscope in any reasonable amount of time, forcing him to use a far quicker and cheaper method that resulted in massive {{Art Shift}}s throughout the entire film. Then, he was forced to stop the story after adapting the first two books due to budgetary reasons, resulting in the property being handed back to Creator/RankinBass -- who had previously adapted ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'' -- to create an adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing''. ''Then,'' the executives refused to let the film carry its proper "Part 1" subtitle so people wouldn't think the film was a complete story, which led to the film getting absolutely destroyed by fans at the time.
73	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheLordOfTheRings See subpage]].
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Films]]
77
78	!!By Film
79	[[index]]
80	* ''Trivia/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing''
81	* ''Trivia/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''
82	* ''Trivia/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''
83	[[/index]]
84
85	!!In General
86
87	* AbilityOverAppearance:
88	** The producers intended to cast only British actors as the Hobbits as Tolkien had imagined the Shire as a form of England but American Creator/ElijahWood sent in a strong audition tape and was cast as Frodo. A marginal case, seeing as Wood speaks TheQueensLatin with very few slips. Creator/SeanAstin's West Country take on Sam Gamgee has also received generally good notices (funnily enough, it's the exact same accent Bill Nighy gave Sam in the '80s radio adaptation, despite Astin not having heard it when he came up with the voice).
89	** Gollum was meant to be an animatronic, but Creator/AndySerkis's performance impressed the filmmakers so much that they decided to use CGI and motion capture (trope-naming SerkisFolk), plus having him physically acting on the set. That also allowed them to have the flashback scene at the start of ''Return of the King'' where a live-action hobbit-Sméagol played by Serkis transforms into Gollum.
90	* ActingForTwo:
91	** Creator/JohnRhysDavies plays Gimli and voices Treebeard.
92	** Davies' French dub actor for the films, Creator/VincentGrass, also voiced both roles.
93	** Lawrence Makoare has a scene between himself as Gothmog and himself as the Witch-King. Both of whom are voiced by Andy Serkis.
94	* ActorInspiredElement:
95	** It was Viggo Mortensen's idea for Aragorn to take Boromir's gauntlets, both as a tribute to their fallen companion and to constantly remind himself of the promise he made to save Minas Tirith and their people.
96	** The dream scene between Aragorn and Arwen in the second film was scripted entirely in English. Liv Tyler had fallen in love with the Elvish language and asked for some of the lines to be translated into Elvish.
97	** Supposedly, Christopher Lee helped direct his death scene, since he knew from his WWII service how people react when getting stabbed in the back.
98	* AllStarCast: A staggering list of recognizable names in the cast, not to mention that [[StarMakingRole these movies made recognizable the names of every actor]] in them whose names hadn't been beforehand.
99	* AuthorPhobia: Creator/PeterJackson actually used his own phobia of spiders to measure the effectiveness of Shelob's design and animations. By all accounts, ''it worked.''
100	* AwesomeDearBoy:
101	** Cate Blanchett joked that the main reason she wanted to play Galadriel was so she could wear pointy ears.
102	** Christopher Lee always wanted to star in the movies, particularly as Gandalf due to being a big fan of the books when he was younger. He was noted to be the only cast member to have ever met J.R.R. Tolkien himself in real life.
103	* BackedByThePentagon: The New Zealand army in this case. Parts of Mordor were from old mine fields (that were swept beforehand), since they had enough ash to make the look needed.
104	* BeamMeUpScotty:
105	** 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.
106	** Memes often depict Boromir saying "One does not simply walk into Mordor" with his right fingers forming a circle. In actuality, the gesture is associated with "The Great Eye is ever watchful." The actual gesture when saying the former line was nothing short of a simple FacePalm.
107	* BillingDisplacement: Creator/LivTyler is billed third in all three, and while Arwen does get more focus compared to the books, it's still a fairly minor role with only 10-15 minutes in each movie.
108	* CastTheExpert:
109	** 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.
110	** 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 [=DVDs=] makes note of how good they were at following directions and setting up formations, as well as how much enthusiasm they brought to the combat scenes.
111	* CastTheRunnerUp:
112	** Creator/ChristopherLee was a great fan of the books who even knew Tolkien personally, and he had always wanted to play Gandalf in a film adaptation. He took the role of a wizard in ''Series/TheNewAdventuresOfRobinHood'' only in order to get the producers to notice him, and later sent Creator/PeterJackson a photo in wizard robes to suggest him the idea. When he finally entered negotiations with Jackson, however, Lee was dismayed to find out Creator/IanMcKellen had been already cast for that role. Eventually, although Lee was famously sick of playing villains, Jackson managed to convince him that he would make an excellent Saruman instead. According to rumors, another factor was Lee finding out how physical the role of Gandalf would be in comparison, which would be a problem due to his age.
113	** Creator/BernardHill was also considered for Gandalf before being cast as Theoden.
114	** Creator/DominicMonaghan originally auditioned for Frodo Baggins before being cast as Merry.
115	** Creator/JohnRhysDavies auditioned for Denethor. He played two roles - Gimli and Treebeard.
116	** Creator/SylvesterMcCoy was considered for Bilbo Baggins. He would later play Radagast the Brown in ''Film/TheHobbit''.
117	** Creator/OrlandoBloom originally tried out for Faramir, not Legolas. The producers ended up convincing him that he'd be better suited for Legolas.
118	** Creator/BillyConnolly was considered for Gimli. He would later play Dain in ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies''.
119	* CreatorBacklash:
120	** Creator/ChristopherLee was understandably not happy that his one (and only) big scene was cut from the theatrical cut from ''The Return of the King'' (if he had been kept he would've got a SAG Award for Best Ensemble Cast). But he eventually reconciled his feud with Peter Jackson to be in ''The Hobbit''.
121	** The role of the CavalryOfTheDead is considered by Peter Jackson to be this due to its StoryBreakerPower and "being unbelievable". If it had appeared any earlier, the Siege of Minas Tirith would have been one-sided and the Ride of the Rohirrim would have been unnecessary. Note however that this is after he simplified things and gave the ghosts a ''much'' bigger role by having them at the siege itself, instead of an offscreen battle (where it's strongly implied they scare away foes instead of physically fighting) in order to free up human reinforcements, who do go with Aragorn to the siege.
122	** Though Creator/JohnRhysDavies had fond memories of working on the trilogy, he publicly swore off playing Gimli after production of ''The Return of the King'' concluded due to the allergic reaction from the make-up and prosthetics.
123	** Years later, [[https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/why-viggo-mortensen-says-the-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-was-a-mess Viggo Mortensen]] would go on to describe the film series as a mess, citing that the only reason the later two films got theatrical releases is because the ''Fellowship of the Ring'' was a surprise hit, and that if not for it, the series would have gone straight to DVD instead of any theatrical releases. He also felt that the movies went too far into relying on CGI as they went on, citing that he felt things got too over the top, and that Peter Jackson's skills as a director weakened when he moved on to doing larger projects over smaller ones.
124	** Creator/SeanAstin has gone on record about how Hollywood Accounting was used to screw much of the cast out of satisfactory wages. Although he played arguably the most-significant supporting character across three films, he only made around $200,000, in total, for his efforts, which included 18 months of grueling principal photography and flying back and forth from New Zealand for years to shoot pick ups.
125	* DarkhorseCasting: Creator/OrlandoBloom was cast as Legolas two days before he finished drama school.
126	* DawsonCasting:
127	** In the Prologue, Sir Creator/IanHolm is ''very'' briefly seen wearing a dark, curly wig,[[note]]Holm's skin was also pulled back to try and mask some wrinkles[[/note]] as Bilbo 50 years younger. While Gandalf ''does'' say that Bilbo "hasn't aged a day" since seeing him last, Holm is obviously too old to have such brown hair.
128	** A rather interesting case is Billy Boyd as Pippin, as Boyd was the oldest of the four hobbit actors yet also played the youngest of the hobbits. Possibly subverted in that, being the youngest hobbit, Boyd is probably ''closest'' to his own hobbit's age; Pippin is only around 30, whereas Frodo ''looks'' in his 20s (the book calls the irresponsible twenty-somethings "tweens") but is closer to 50, while Merry and Sam are around 40.
129	* DeletedScene: [[DeletedScene/TheLordOfTheRings Has its own page]].
130	* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: On the wall of Helm's Deep during the battle, a one-eyed warrior turns to the camera, revealing his scarred empty socket. The performer who played him showed up as an extra, wearing an eye patch. Creator/PeterJackson politely asked to see what was under the patch, and then inquired if the gentleman would be interested in appearing in the film sans eye patch. The gentleman was reluctant at first, and quite self-conscious, but afterward, said the experience had made him more comfortable with his condition.
131	* DVDBonusContent: Set the standard for in-depth behind the scenes features, even though most DVD releases still can't compare to the sheer mass of juicy bonus material in the DVD sets, even discounting the extended cuts.
132	* DVDCommentary: All three films, including the Extended Editions, have several impressive tracks by the Director, Producers, Production Designers, and Cast. They're especially notable for including a rare public appearance by Peter Jackson's wife and co-writer Fran Walsh, who didn't return for the ''Hobbit'' commentaries.
133	* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/SeanAstin gained thirty pounds to play Samwise Gamgee.
134	* EnforcedMethodActing: The river that Gollum has fun splashing in in ''The Two Towers'' was actually ice-cold during filming (indeed, they had to ''thaw'' it upon arrival), which greatly encouraged Andy Serkis to ''not stop moving.''
135	* ExecutiveMeddling:
136	** Played with. Jackson anticipated only being able to greenlight one or two movies so his writing team wrote the initial treatment accordingly. And indeed, the first few picture studios he visited did indeed want to do only one film (which Jackson found unacceptable, and would almost certainly have been too little time to tell the story). But when he pitched it to New Line, the producers saw it and said, "What are you doing? This is ''[[InvertedTrope three]]'' movies." And this was before Hollywood was obsessed with cranking out trilogies--indeed, ''Lord of the Rings'' may have sparked the trend.
137	** The initial plans for one or two movies is also why ''The Two Towers'' has an additional writing credit for Stephen Sinclair. Sinclair worked on early drafts, but apparently left once production expanded to three films. However, he contributed enough on ''The Two Towers'' to warrant a writing credit.
138	* FakeBrit: The filmmakers went with an AccentAdaptation to have all the characters speak with English accents. In addition to the British actors cast, we also have...
139	** Americans - Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Astin (Sam), Viggo Mortensen[[note]]Well, Danish American who spent most of his childhood either in South America or Denmark, and lived in England, Spain, and Denmark before becoming an actor, to the point that he has written books and poetry in English, Danish, and Spanish, and acted in Spanish language films and plays[[/note]] (Aragorn), Liv Tyler (Arwen), Brad Dourif (Wormtongue).
140	** Australians - Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Miranda Otto (Éowyn), David Wenham (Faramir), John Noble (Denethor).
141	** New Zealanders - Karl Urban (Éomer), Craig Parker (Haldir), Martin Csokas (Celeborn) and various bit parts filled by locals.
142	* FakeScot: English-born, Welsh-bred John Rhys-Davis gives Gimli a Scottish accent, the same one he had used for ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves''.
143	* FountainOfExpies:
144	** Gandalf is ranked up there with Merlin in some circles.
145	** Thanks to Viggo Mortensen's portrayal, this applies to Aragorn. Although he may have already been one, anyways.
146	** Gimli, who usually serves as a base for many Dwarf character creations for fantasy roleplay, if it helps.
147	** Even people who haven't read the book or seen the film are familiar with Gollum, if only through PopCulturalOsmosis or his role as childhood NightmareFuel in ''Literature/TheHobbit''. Or, the reference to him in Music/LedZeppelin's "Ramble On."
148	** Legolas, who is made even more so by Orlando Bloom's portrayal in the film version.
149	** After the publication of ''The Lord Of The Rings'', it became ''de rigueur'' for the villain in a fantasy story to be a manipulative, rarely-seen EvilOverlord who lives in a dark tower in an evil realm, employs various horrible creatures to do his work, and is dependent on an artifact of his making for power and survival.
150	* FriendshipOnTheSet: The cast and crew became this thanks to the three years they spent filming the movies back to back/concurrently. Also, while the entire cast became close, smaller groups of true companions formed between the actors playing the four hobbits and between the trio who played Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.
151	* HostilityOnTheSet: There was something of a rivalry between the extras playing Elves and the extras playing Uruk-hai. The Uruks coined the nickname "cupcakes" for their Elven counterparts. This apparently started because the Elven extras (who were largely local college students) weren't getting into character as soldiers, so the Uruk-hai decided to start taunting, jeering, and otherwise acting like actual members of an opposing army. This got the Elven actors riled up enough to be in character. This doubles as EnforcedMethodActing.
152	* InternationalCoproduction: The films were produced by Creator/NewLineCinema in the United States and [=WingNut=] Films in New Zealand.
153	* LifeImitatesArt:
154	** According to behind the scenes material, Creator/ViggoMortensen was a natural leader of the actors and film crew.
155	** Creator/SeanAstin also ended up more or less taking care of Creator/ElijahWood during filming.
156	--->Sean was very much Sam for me. You know, always looking after me, being there for me.
157	----> - '''Elijah Wood''' (2001)
158
159	---> Well, I felt very, um… protective over Elijah, for no reason. He could take care of himself fine.
160	----> - '''Sean Astin''' (2012)
161	* LoopingLines: The entire trilogy was dubbed in post: the enormous noise of the on-set fans and the assorted background noise made it impossible to hear any of the dialogue spoken while recording.
162	* MemeRoleReprise: Creator/AndySerkis has reprised the roles of Gollum and Smeagol in a number of parodies, such as a curse-filled rant for the MTV Awards, a political ad depicting them as UsefulNotes/TheresaMay, an appearance on ''Series/LateNightWithConanOBrien'' with the two interacting with [[Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes Caesar]], and his interview on ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'' where he read UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump tweets.
163	* MissingTrailerScene:
164	** The trailers for ''The Two Towers'' and ''The Return of the King'' both feature scenes of Arwen that didn't make the final cut- the former were moved to the third film for pacing purposes and the latter scenes (of Arwen standing on a bridge and hugging Elrond) didn't feature at all. Also, the scene of Éomer cradling Éowyn's unconscious body in Return didn't appear in the theatrical cut, but was restored for the Extended Edition.
165	** Also seen in several trailers but cut is Merry apparently pledging his sword to Théoden.
166	** The teaser trailer for ''The Two Towers'' that appeared as an Easter Egg on ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' Extended Edition DVD which featured (for about a second) a clean-shaven Aragorn.
167	* NoStuntDouble:
168	** Creator/ViggoMortensen: Broke his toe kicking a helmet (which [[ThrowItIn stayed in the final cut]]), lost a tooth, nearly drowned and did many of his own stunts while filming. He was also described by legendary swordmaster [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Anderson_%28fencer%29 Bob Anderson]] as "the best swordsman I've ever trained" (which is saying something in a 50-year career), and kept his sword with him at all times for the duration of the filming. Oh, and slept in the stables in order to bond with his horses, and bought said horses after the production finished.
169	** With the exception of physically impossible moves that required a digital double, Creator/OrlandoBloom did all of his own stunts.
170	* OneTakeWonder: The scene where Gandalf calls for his horse, and Shadowfax comes galloping across the fields and straight up to his Master, was achieved on the first take.
171	* OnSetInjury: The production resulted in several injuries for many cast members, including bruises and broken bones.
172	** Creator/ViggoMortensen is the absolute king of this though; he cracked a front tooth (with the crew insisting he go to a dentist rather than glue the broken bit on to keep filming), nearly drowned floating down a river and broke his toe kicking a metal helmet (he incorporated his scream of agony into his acting when Aragorn is grieving over the apparent deaths of Merry and Pippin, with that take being the one in the finished film). Off-set, Mortensen also managed to get a black eye while surfing, so he had to be filmed in profile for many of the Moria scenes until the bruising healed.
173	** Creator/OrlandoBloom broke a rib when he fell off a horse.
174	** Creator/BernardHill got his ear sliced in two during the Battle of Helms Deep.
175	** Creator/LivTyler accidentally stabbed herself in the thigh with a sword.
176	** Creator/SeanAstin was injured twice. First, he stepped on a piece of glass in a river that went through his prosthetic foot and required him to be airlifted to hospital. Secondly, Creator/AndySerkis pulled his wig so hard it gave him a hairline fracture.
177	* OrphanedReference: Faramir's lines "A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to prove his quality," and "Tell him I send a ''mighty'' gift" were supposed to be {{Meaningful Echo}}s of what his father Denethor says to him earlier, in Osgiliath. The scene in Osgiliath was deleted, though it can be found in the [[{{Recut}} Extended Version]] of the film. Granted, Faramir in the book ''did'' say the first line at about the same point in the story and Book!Denethor ''did'' refer to the Ring as "a mighty gift" that Boromir would not have let slip by in ''Return'', so the references are merely demoted to "shout-outs to the source".
178	* TheOtherDarrin: Sala Baker played [[spoiler:Sauron in his "black knight" form, when he still had the One Ring,]] in The LOTR trilogy. When ''The Hobbit'' was filmed, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch portrayed the character [[spoiler:in his guise as the Necromancer]] instead.
179	* TheOtherMarty: Creator/StuartTownsend 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 floating around the internet.
180	* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/SeanBean at the time was heavily typecast as villains. His role as Boromir is what's recognised as the one that broke him out of those parts. While he did still play some villains, he was able to get more varied roles afterwards.
181	* PermanentPlaceholder: The One Ring's design was based on Rick Porras's wedding band after the producer used it as a prop for an impromptu acting session.
182	* RealLifeRelative:
183	** Creator/ElijahWood's sister Hannah played one of the Rohirrim refugees.
184	** Creator/SeanAstin's eldest daughter Alexandria, who was 4 at the time, played Sam's daughter Elanor in the ending of ''The Return of the King''. In the same scene Sarah [=McLeod=], who plays Rosie, is seen holding a baby played by her infant daughter Maisy.
185	** Creator/ViggoMortensen's son Henry played an Orc as well as a Rohirrim soldier.
186	* RefittedForSequel: Several scenes that happened in the books or early versions of the movie script are removed, but are replaced by similar scenes in later films (not only in later LOTR films, but in ''Film/TheHobbit'' as well).
187	** Merry and Pippin are nearly eaten by Old Man Willow before being saved by Tom Bombadil in ''The Fellowship of the Ring''-->Merry and Pippin are nearly eaten by a Huorn before being saved by Treebeard in the extended edition of ''The Two Towers''.
188	** Frodo sings "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" at the Prancing Pony in FOTR-->Bofur sings the same song in Rivendell in the extended edition of ''The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey''.
189	** Wargs attack the Fellowship on the way to Moria in ''The Fellowship of the Ring''-->Warg ''riders'' attack Rohan refugees on the way to Helm's Deep in ''The Two Towers''.
190	** Orcs pursue the Fellowship into Lothlorien before being killed by Elves in FOTR-->Orcs pursue Thorin and Company from the Lone-lands into Rivendell before being killed by Elves in ''The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey''.
191	** Orc archers attack Fellowship in their boats on the River Anduin in FOTR-->Orcs attack Thorin and Company in their barrels as they escape to Lake-town in ''The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug''.
192	** Winged Nazgul attacks Fellowship after said Orc archer attack before being shot by Legolas in FOTR-->Winged Nazgul nearly captures Frodo in Osgilliath before being shot by Faramir in ''The Two Towers''.
193	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Various filmmakers tried to adapt the books for decades. Aside from Creator/JohnBoorman's aborted version, the likes of Creator/WaltDisney, Al Brodax, Forrest Ackerman, Denis O'Dell (who considered Richard Lester to direct, but instead approached Creator/DavidLean, Creator/StanleyKubrick and Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni) and Creator/GeorgeLucas were interested in directing. The rights passed through the hands of several studios, having been briefly leased to Rembrandt Films before being sold perpetually to Creator/UnitedArtists. In 1976, UA passed the rights to to Fantasy Films.
194	** Creator/PeterJackson first discussed adapting the book in 1995, started writing and storyboarding in 1997 and began production in 1999. And this was after it went from Creator/{{Miramax}} to Creator/NewLineCinema.
195	* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Creator/SeanBean and Creator/DavidWenham, who portray Boromir and Faramir, look very convincing as brothers.
196	* ShootTheMoney: The entire trilogy embodies this. In fact, Creator/PeterJackson confesses he pursued a project of epic scale because he needed to find continued use for the high-end graphics stations he'd purchased for ''Film/TheFrighteners'' and things took off from there. The level of detail put into the, well, everything is astonishing, and it shows. Every penny of its $285 million budget is right up on the screen.
197	** Minor subversion in one scene, mentioned in the extended edition DVD for ''Return of the King'': Still in Rohan, Éowyn offers a cup to Aragorn, and he drinks from it. Creator/MirandaOtto, along with the costume designers, lamented that the dress she wore as Éowyn for that scene was fantastic and intricate, particularly the skirt and sleeves - in a scene shooting the actors from the chest upwards.
198	** The trilogy actually has a lot of subversions. For example Bernard Hill noted that Théoden's breastplate had beautiful, intricate stitching and details--''on the inside'', where only he and wardrobe ever saw it. However, it served to make him feel like a king.
199	* ShrugOfGod: Whether Sam killed Shelob or not.
200	* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Creator/ViggoMortensen hadn't read the books when he was offered the part of Aragorn and primarily accepted because his son was a huge fan of the series and convinced him the role would be worth it. He read the entire trilogy on the flight to New Zealand.
201	* SparedByTheCut: The theatrical cut of ''The Return of the King'' leaves out Saruman and Gríma's appearance, leaving them effectively imprisoned in Orthanc. The extended edition restores the scene, in which Gríma kills Saruman before being killed by Legolas. Gothmog's death during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields is also omitted from the theatrical cut; he's last seen backing away from the Rohirrim charge.
202	* StarMakingRole: The trilogy gave massive career boosts to a few of the cast members.
203	** Creator/OrlandoBloom is probably the biggest. He had a role in ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' beforehand, but this and the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' franchise turned him into a star and a heartthrob for teenage girls everywhere.
204	** Creator/DominicMonaghan had just two MadeForTVMovie credits and a TV series to his resume before this. Afterwards he was launched onto things like ''{{Series/Lost}}'' and ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''.
205	** Creator/ViggoMortensen was best known as a character actor, with his only memorable role being ''Film/GIJane''. Afterwards he was in projects like ''{{Film/Hidalgo}}'', ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence'' and ''Eastern Promises''.
206	** Subverted with Creator/MirandaOtto who got attention and acclaim for playing Éowyn -- and a part in ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005'' out of it -- but opted to take a few years off from acting to focus on raising her children and stage work in Australia.
207	** Creator/SeanBean was best known for ''{{Series/Sharpe}}'' at the time. He soon started popping up in blockbusters such as ''{{Film/Troy}}'', ''Film/TheIsland2005'', ''Film/NationalTreasure'' and of course ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
208	** Brought Creator/DavidWenham to international attention.
209	** And of course, Creator/AndySerkis. Whose motion-capture as Gollum lit his career on fire, and hasn't dulled 2 decades on, turning him into the go-to guy if you need a CG character played, not to mention a second career as a successful big-budget film director.
210	* StuntCasting: WordOfGod is that Creator/LivTyler playing Arwen was this - as they wanted a Hollywood star in one role (as Creator/UmaThurman had to turn it down due to her pregnancy). As such the marketing for the first film heavily promoted Arwen as if she was a major character.
211	* TechnologyMarchesOn: The visual effects and computer graphics noticeably improve from film to film as Weta developed new techniques and refined the workflow. In fact, on-set motion capture didn't exist at the beginning of production and became available in the middle of the shoot. Most notably seen in Gollum, who gained much more detail and subtletly in his performance in ''The Return of the King'' versus how he appeared in ''The Two Towers'' as the artists and animators contintually worked on skin, hair, and musculature while also gaining the ability to do on-set motion capture between the two films.
212	* ThrowItIn:
213	** In a scene at the beginning of the first movie, when Gandalf visits Bilbo at Bag End, Creator/IanMcKellen bumps into the low hanging lanterns, which was expected. Then he turns quickly, and whacks his head on a wooden beam in the low ceiling, which was ''not'' expected. Since it looked just fine and [[RuleOfFunny also pretty funny]], it was kept as the final cut.
214	** During the Flight to the Ford, a tree branch snags Arwen's face. A few minutes later, at the Ford itself, Arwen has a fresh scratch on her cheek.
215	** Aragorn and Lurtz's fight is a lot more real than intended. Lurtz's actor threw the wrong knife instead of the safe prop, which made it quite lucky that Mortensen successfully deflected it. Lurtz's actor also could not see well in the costume, so many of his blows actually connected, which prompted Mortensen to go stiff on his own blows.
216	** At first Viggo Mortensen 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.
217	** 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 began to do the same thing. Before long, they all did it, which led to Peter Jackson throwing it in.
218	** Contrary to popular belief, the flag of Rohan being ripped away from its pole was intentional, but the tragically poetic way it blew away in the wind was just a happy accident due to it being on top of a mountain with a consistently stiff breeze.
219	** 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.
220	** Creator/JohnRhysDavies couldn't be bothered to learn most of the fight choreography. According to Creator/DominicMonaghan, fight scenes involving John were along the lines of John telling the stunt men to charge in a certain order and hitting them in his own way as they closed in.
221	** According to Creator/SeanBean, the famous "One does not simply walk into Mordor" line was a last minute addition to the script. Due to this, he had no time to rehearse the line, so he started the line by reading from it in his lap, which can be seen by how his face is aimed to his lap and his eyes are covered to give the impression he was in thought. This take was used due to how well he managed to use it to his advantage.
222	* TouristBump: The movies were all shot in New Zealand, which quickly became known as 'Home of Middle-earth' following the first movie's release. The country still has many tourist attractions related to the movies.
223	* UnderageCasting: Frodo is 33 at the start of the story and is said to still look as such, even when he turns 50. Creator/ElijahWood was 20 when he was cast. A JustifiedTrope, as possession of the One Ring slows aging, and he has it for pretty much the entire saga.
224	* WagTheDirector: Creator/ViggoMortensen and Liv Tyler both requested that the script be re-written so they could speak more of the Elvish language.
225	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TheLordOfTheRings See subpage]] at last.
226	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: The trilogy was shot like that. Even as the cameras kept rolling, scenes and plots were being rewritten again and again - some versions of the script reached not just the double digits, but went up to 40 and above. Actors frequently got their lines only the night before the shooting and major revisions resulted in whole scenes being re-shot. Ironically, the writers insist that each iteration was ultimately closer to Tolkien's work and even stated that some of the remaining controversial changes might have been gone too, had they not reached a deadline by then.
227	[[/folder]]
228
229	[[folder:Amazon's series]]
230	* ''Trivia/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower''
231	[[/folder]]
232
233	[[folder:Pinball]]
234	* CelebrityVoiceActor: Creator/ElijahWood and Creator/JohnRhysDavies voiced Frodo and Gimli in Creator/SternPinball's [[Pinball/TheLordOfTheRings licensed pinball game.]]
235	[[/folder]]

Context Trivia / TheLordOfTheRings