Follow TV Tropes

Following

Trivia / The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Go To

  • Creator-Preferred Adaptation: Peter Jackson and the cast have gone on record saying they prefer the extended edition of this film. Jackson himself even said in the introductory video for its limited theatrical release that he was proud of how it turned out. The fans seem to agree as reception for the extended cut has been positive, with many calling it a Surprisingly Improved Sequel. (However, it should be noted the extended edition is still not the entire version Jackson wanted; around ten minutes were cut.)
  • Deleted Scene: See here.
  • Development Gag: "The Orcs have taken Stone Street! The market's overrun!" Stone Street is where the studio work happened.
  • Executive Meddling:
    • According to Word of God, the studio imposed a ton of things onto Peter Jackson, forced him to edit the film in a way he didn't approve of and that the focus of the film was originally different. This explains certain plot holes in the film, the haphazard editing and most likely the additional Alfrid scenes.
    • One indication of how unhappy Jackson was with the theatrical cut of Five Armies is his YouTube channel, where his Hobbit production diaries suddenly stop at #14, with the end of production on Desolation of Smaug, and he doesn't make any vlogs about Five Armies at all. You have to watch the extras on the Extended Cut box set to get those parts of the production story.
    • Additionally, the original extended cut was going to contain thirty minutes of footage, but it was shortened by ten minutes.
  • In Memoriam:
    • At the end of the credits, there is a dedication to sound editor Mike Hopkins, who died in 2012.
    • The film's extended cut is dedicated to both cinematographer Andrew Lesnie and Christopher Lee, who respectively passed away in April and June of 2015.
  • Method Acting: Richard Armitage requested during the filming of Thorin's death scene that he should be allowed to lie on the floor of the set without anybody walking up and touching him to check his makeup, and for the sound crew to get a good live recording of his last words to Bilbo because he knew he wouldn't be able to reproduce the same performance again in ADR.
  • The Other Marty: The orc dungeon keeper in Dol Guldur was actually Bolg's original actor, as shown in this article. But when the decision was made to CG Azog and Bolg, he was demoted to the prison keeper, with Lawrence Makoare and John Tui taking over the role in the second film (Makoare) and in this one (Tui). Evidence from production blurbs and merchandise points to that being Bolg's entire role in the original two-film treatment, anyway.
  • Real-Life Relative:
    • Lee Pace's parents visited him on-set, and subsequently Peter Jackson offered them to be extras in the movie. They were given roles as Lake Town villagers, and filmed a scene with Ian McKellen. However, according to Pace, they were cut out of the movie, because his father was "hamming it up" during his scene.
    • Jackson's daughter Katie is a scared girl aboard a boat in Lake Town, who tries to escape from the town, while his son Billy is a Lake Town refugee who stabs an Orc during the battle.
  • Swan Song: This film was Ian Holm's final appearance as Bilbo Baggins, as well as his final film, before he succumbed to Parkinson's disease nearly six years after its release.
  • What Could Have Been: See subpage.
  • Working Title: For a long time, the film was going to be titled There And Back Again. It was ultimately changed to Battle of the Five Armies because it was an artifact from when The Hobbit was only planned to be two films and no longer really fit the movie.

Top