30 Fascinating Facts About The Lord Of The Rings Franchise
There may be 30 facts, but this is not as long as Frodo's journey to Mount Doom.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien or J.R.R. Tolkien, when shortened, wrote one of the best, if not the best high fantasy epics of his time. His magical world in The Lord of the Rings has been read and analyzed by our generation endlessly.
The books in this series are voluminous; there's no denying that. But an aching neck and tired eyes are not enough reasons to deter fans from devouring page after page.
The world in this high fantasy series is absolutely one of the most spellbinding alternate worlds you can lose yourself in. Tolkien's work does not only live in the pages of his books and in the imaginations of his readers; it has been immortalized and captured in motion through the legendary films made by Peter Jackson.
We are nearing the 20th anniversary of the first film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was theatrically released on December 20, 2001. Nearly two decades later, nothing can still beat the greatness that is this film franchise (sorry, not sorry, Game of Thrones).
The franchise was received well commercially, earning $2.991 billion worldwide, as well as critically, if the countless awards indicate anything. After many years of annual LOTR watch parties, there are still some intriguing facts that you should know about this magnificent franchise.
1. Jake Gyllenhaal tried for the part of Frodo, but he had one of his worst auditions
He was not told prior to the audition that the role needed a British accent. Not having prepared for that, the actor tanked the audition.
Nbc / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images, New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection2. Nic Cage and Daniel Day-Lewis were handpicked to play Aragorn but declined
Cage didn't want to move to New Zealand for a few years while doing the film and cited family obligations, while Day-Lewis turned down the role several times for an undisclosed reason.
Michael Kovac / Getty Images for NEON, Jason Merritt / Getty Images 3. Stuart Townsend was cast as Aragorn and trained for 2 months, only to be fired a day before filming started.
The actor said in an interview that he has no "good feelings" left for the people in charge of the film after being fired unceremoniously. Peter Jackson wanted an older-looking actor to fit the role of Aragorn and realized too late that Townsend did not fit the bill.
20thcentfox / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection, Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
4. Sean Connery would have earned $400 million if he had accepted the role of Gandalf. He was offered 15% of the total box office earnings but declined the role because he did not understand the script.
Michael Loccisano / Getty Images
5. Sir Christopher Lee wanted to be cast so badly he sent Peter Jackson photos of himself in full wizard regalia
The actor was a huge fan of the book series and was the only member of the cast to meet J.R.R. Tolkien. He even began auditioning as a wizard for other movies to prove to the casting team that he would be perfect as a wizard.
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
6. The Beatles originally planned to make the movie adaptation of the books but didn't get the author's blessing.
They even wanted Stanley Kubrick to be the director for their version. Fortunately for us, Tolkien didn't like the idea of a pop group recreating his story, so their dream fizzled out quickly.
Icon And Image / Getty Images
7. Sir Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood never shot a scene together
Gandalf had to be a lot taller than the hobbit, Frodo, and that meant the two had to film separately. This was also the case when McKellen once again played Gandalf to Martin Freeman's Bilbo in The Hobbit.
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
8. Andy Serkis's audition for the role of Gollum was so impressive that his voice-acting gig turned into a full-time performance role.
Gollum was originally supposed to be made through CGI, but Peter Jackson was blown away by the actor's audition. They used performance-capture technology for Andy Serkis to actually play Gollum on set.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
9. The actor drinks "Gollum Juice" — a concoction of lemon, honey, and ginger to prepare before filming.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
10. The Battle of Helm's Deep in the second film, The Two Towers, took three and a half months to film.
They had to shoot the entire sequence at night while it was raining. The crew also used a special blue backlight to make the moonlight believable.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
11. The Orcs seen forging weapons are actual blacksmiths for the movie, in charge of making most of the weapons for the franchise.
New Line Cinema
12. Sir Ian McKellen hitting his head on a beam at Bilbo's house was an accident, but the director liked it so much that it was kept.
New Line Cinema
13. That was a real knife being hurled at Aragorn, which he fortunately batted away.
Lurtz, well, the actor playing him, was supposed to aim away from Mortensen, but his heavy costume made that difficult. He accidentally threw the very real knife towards Mortensen, which he hit away with his real metal sword (all on the first take!).
New Line Cinema
14. The flag flying away was not a part of the script — Peter Jackson swears that it wasn't at all planned.
New Line Cinema
15. Viggo Mortensen is so method that he accidentally broke two of his toes when he kicked a helmet in frustration (Aragorn thought Merry and Pippin died).
New Line Cinema
16. Mortensen chipped a tooth during a fight scene after he was hit in the face with a sword — he went to the dentist during his break and resumed filming on the same day.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
17. Orlando Bloom is proud of the fact that he was the first cast member to be injured: he fell off a horse, and Gimli's stunt double fell on top of him, cracking a rib.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
18. Sean Astin had to be helicoptered to a hospital after stepping on a shard of glass.
It was the scene where Sam chases after Frodo into the water during the final part of The Fellowship of the Ring. The glass penetrated through the prosthetic hobbit's foot and into Astin's actual foot.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
19. No horses were harmed in the making of the movies. Impressive, considering that there are 300 of them!
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
20. Sean Bean, who played Boromir, hiked a mountain for two hours every day while in full costume because he was so afraid of flying.
He had the option to ride in the helicopter with his castmates, but he chose to hike daily wearing his armor. The actor is genuinely afraid of flying.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
21. The leaves falling during the scene with the Council of Elrond were individually painted when they began to wither and were scattered by 6 crew members.
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
22. To show the metaphorical heavy burden of carrying the Ring, the crew placed a magnet beneath the tile so the Ring wouldn't bounce when dropped.
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
23. They used special lights to make Galadriel's eyes appear as if they have stars in them.
New Line Cinema
24. Some of the best horseback riders composing the Riders of Rohan were women wearing beards!
New Line Cinema
25. Viggo Mortensen bought the horse used in filming for Jane Abbott, Liv Tyler's stunt double, because she bonded with it during their scenes.
New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
26. Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith were built on the same site — some parts of Minas Tirith were altered parts of the Helm's Deep set.
New Line Cinema
27. Peter Jackson had sneaky cameos in the first three films as a carrot-holding man, a soldier, and a pirate.
New Line Cinema
28. The studio execs wanted to shrink Galadriel's 7-minute monologue into two minutes, but the filmmakers fought for the whole thing to be kept (thank Gandalf!).
New Line Cinema
29. The producers were astounded by Billy Boyd's singing voice after hearing him sing karaoke.
The discovery prompted the birth of one of the most melancholy songs in the franchise — Edge of Night. He sang it during the heartbreaking scene of Faramir bravely riding towards his sure death.
30. The filming for the franchise wrapped up a day AFTER the cinema release.
They continued filming for the scenes that were to be included in the extended versions of the movie. A month after their historic Oscars win, Peter Jackson reportedly found it funny that they had already won 11 Oscars and he was still filming.
New Line Cinema
Truly, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the best series of our generation. It has been a prominent part of every stage in our lives, and that's not going to stop any time soon.
Here we are, 20 years later, still talking about it as if we've just seen it for the first time. All this Lord of the Rings talk is just a sign for all of us to schedule another marathon.
