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.

Chelsi

• Published in Film & TV
• April 26, 2022

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, they have been immortalized and captured in motion through the legendary films made by Peter Jackson.

We are near 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 the many years of annual LOTR watch parties, there are still some intriguing facts that you should know about the 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.

2. 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.

3. Stuart Townsend was casted as Aragorn and trained for 2 months only to be fired a day before the 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.

4. Sean Connery would have earned $400 million if he 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.

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.

6. The Beatles wanted originally planned of making 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.

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.

8. Andy Serkis's audtion for the role of Gollum was so impressive that his voice-acting gig turned into a full-time performance work.

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.

9. The actor drinks "Gollum Juice" — a concoction of lemon, honey, and ginger to prepare before filming.

10. The Battle of Helm's Deep in the second film, 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.

11. The Orcs seen forging weapons are actual blacksmiths for the movie in charge of making most of the weapons for the franchise

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

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!).

14. The flag flying away was not a part of the script — Peter Jackson swears that wasn't at all planned

15. Viggo Mortensen is so method, he accidentally broke two of his toes when he kicked a helmet in frustration (Aragorn thought Merry and Pippin died)

16. Mortensen chipped a tooth during a fight scene after he was hit on the face with a sword — he went to the dentist during his break and resumed filming on the same day

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

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.

19. No horses were harmed in the making of the movies. Impressive, considering that there's 300 of them!

20. Sean Bean, who played Boromir, hiked a mountainfor two hours everyday while in full costume because he was so afraid of flying

He had the option to ride on the helicopter together with his castmates but he chose to hike daily wearing his armor. The actor is genuinely afraid of flying.

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

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

23. They used special lights to make Galadriel's eyes appear as if they have stars in them

24. Some of the best horseback riders composing the Riders of Ronan were women wearing beards!

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

26. Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith were built on the same site — some parts of Minis Tirith were altered parts of the Helm's Deep set

27. Peter Jackson had sneaky cameos in the first three films as a carrot-holding man, a soldier, and a pirate

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!)

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've already won 11 Oscars and he was still filming.

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 like 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.

Chelsi