To this day, The Lord of the Rings remains one of the best movie adaptations of a novel series. Despite its many changes and nuances, the films are just as beloved as the books, and are great in their own ways. While the franchise doesn’t have the lasting mass appeal as Harry Potter or even Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings is still one of the best fantasy e🤪pics of this generation.
One thing that made the movies so good was that director Peter Jackson wasn’t afraid to change things where he felt neces🦋sary. Instead of shooting the movie straight, recreating each scene from the book, many things were changed to better fit the new storytelling medium and have a much more concise picture for the big screen. That didn’t stop some fans from feeling burn📖ed by the changes, but they proved beneficial in the long run.
However, this led to many things that were cut from The Lord of the Rings movies. While some were a bit dumbfounding to some people, there were othe🦩r changes that made a lot of sense. After all, there were some weird things in the books that didn’t make ♔it into the movies that casual watchers wouldn’t understand.
The Lord of the Rings had plenty of things cut in the transition from book to film. However, get re🔥ady to learn about 25 weird things that were taken from the movies but were still in the books. You may not see Middle-Earth the same way again.
25 🦩 Tom Bom🍸badil
One of the most controversial changes to The Lord of the Rings films wa♛s that Tom Bombadil was cut. While he was a fan-favorite character, it makes sense why he was pa🌼ssed over. There was a strange mystery about the character, and even book fans aren’t quite sure who he is or why the One Ring doesn’t affect him. It also presents another problem with Frodo’s quest (why didn’t they give the Ring to Tom?). He didn’t add much to the story.
24 Barrow-Downs 🅰
When Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin first embarked on their journey in the books, they were halted in their progress b♉y the Barrow-Downs. It was there that they were imprisoned by Barrow Wights before being rescued by Tom Bombadil. This scene was always just another bit of worldbuilding that just padded out the length of the novel (it had its place in context). Having random ghosts in the movies would confuse people watching the movies, especially considering how the Nazgul looked beneath their cloaks.
23 Glorfindel 💖
Fans of the movies might remember the scene of Frodo being taken to Rivendell by Arwen, but she didn’t have such an active role in the books. Instead, it was an elf named Glorfindel who took the Hobbit to the House of Elrond. Having a new character appear only once doesn’t serve the story much, so it’s a better change that Arwen was the ꦰone to do it in the films. It also gives her more to do that doesn’t just make her a random love interest.
22 🦄 Aragorn’s Kingly 🍎Desire
Aragorn in the movies is much different from Aragorn in the books. His entire personality was cut then built fro💃m the ground up. Aragorn, in the books, was always ready to talk about his heritag꧒e and was parading toward Minas Tirith to become the King of Gondor.
However, the movies saw him afraid to become king and didn’t want to make the same mistakes of his ancestors.
Having this more humbling attitude did help the auꦯdience to sympathize with Aragorn and follow his own internal journey.
21 Catch🐎-Up With Thorin’s Company 💟
Thorin’s company involved the dwarves that went with Bilbo and Gandalf to Erebor to take back the Lonely Mountain. In The Lord of the Rings books, we learn a bit about what they’ve been doing since then. Even Bombur gets a nod in the story, being so overweight that it takes a few dwarves to merely lift him out of bed. Without The Hobbit movies coming before The Lord of the Rings, those references were cut from the movies. Instead, we get tiny reference𝓡s to the events of Bilbo’s adventure.
20 🦩 Having Anduril 🐈
Anduril was the re-forged version of Narsil, the blade that defeated Sauron. Being the King of Gondor, Aragorn was given this blade. However, the movies didn’t give it to him until Return of the King. In the books, he had it since The Fellowship of the Ring. It went along with his personality of being ready to become the rightful king. In the movies, this change made more sense, as it signified his ac🥀ceptance of his destiny. It also looked pretty cool.
19 𒊎 Frodo’s Strange 🅘Knowledge
Dialogue wasn’t always the best way to get a feel for the characters in The Lord of the Rings books.ꦅ Conversations often felt expository and it was difficult to distinguish one per🍷sonality from the next. Frodo was given some moments where he seemed strangely wise and educated despite not being outside of the Shire.
This was cut from the movies, having him become more of a slightly clever yet naïve young Hobbit.
Most of the wisdom came from thꦓe older characters like Gandalf.
18 Gandalf Riding Alone 🥃
When Gandalf first arrives in the Shire in The Fellowship of the Ring, he does so on a carriage. In t💫he films, Frodo meets him and rides with him for a spell until getting off before Bag End. In the books, this wasn’t the case. Frodo and Gandalf didn’t cross paths until Bilbo’s party, meaning that Gandalf was riding by himself the entire time. It was just a small change, but it was likely to better establish the Hobbit’s relationship with the wizard.
17 🅘 The Dragon Firework
Believe it or not, the dragon firework wasn’t just a visual trick for the films. It was in the books as well, but it was set off a bit differently. It’s commonly known as the firework set off by Merry and Pippin, who were fooling around. In the books, Gandalf was the one who intentionally set it off for a bigger spectacle. The change was likely made to better showcase the mischievous personaliti🌟es of Merry and Pippin instead of just showing Gandalf’s fireworks a bit more.
16 The Flashing ♍Disappearance 📖
Bilbo did some strange things at his party, and it culminated w💝ith him putting on the One Ring during his speech and disappearing into thin air. Gandalf was surprised by this in the films, but not so much in the books. To prevent people from talking, he produced a flash that made it look like Bilbo conjured some neat trick. With the way the movies handled it, there’s a bit of uncomfortable mꦗystery as we see the power of the Ring.