The Lord of the Rings Studio Wanted to Kill Off One of the Hobbits

Although Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga makes many tweaks in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to the large display screen, it’s by and huge a devoted adaptation. But strain from the studio in a single bizarre approach would’ve taken it down a really totally different path: a little bit of halfling havoc.

Speaking to IGN about their new Lord of the Rings podcast collection—referred to as “Friendship Onion”—Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd (who performed Merry and Pippin) touched upon a time when strain from executives above the Lord of the Rings manufacturing workforce needed to amplify the stakes of the collection by killing off certainly one of its 4 smallest stars. Apparently, the tall people have been off-limits, and the stakes of, say, a large struggle between the forces of fine and evil for the destiny of all Middle-earth might solely be raised when you discovered one of many cutest hobbits round and stabbed them to dying or one thing.

“It’s a good job that didn’t happen, because it would have been me,” Monaghan joked to IGN. “It definitely would have. There’s no way they are killing Frodo and Sam, and the only ones that would be left would be Merry and Pippin. They wouldn’t kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf. It would have definitely been me.”

Both Merry and Pippin discover themselves positioned into the sorts of peril which may undo even the bravest of Shirefolk because the trilogy builds to its conclusion, after all. In Return of the King, Pippin is roped into the servitude of Denethor and fights alongside Gandalf within the siege of Minas Tirith, whereas Merry, hoisted to the facet of an in-disguise Eowyn, rides with the Rohirrim to flank the forces of Mordor on Pelennor Fields. But… c’mon. You can’t kill them! It’d go towards the spirit of the books! And not simply because they survive alongside Sam and Frodo to return to the Shire—and within the books face the forces of “Sharkey” and “Worm” (a.ok.a. Saruman and Grima Wormtounge) as they assault the Shire—however as a result of certainly one of Lord of the Rings’ most beloved themes are about “small folk” rising to the event and enduring within the face of monumental odds.

Killing one of many hobbits may grant momentary shock (and a whole lot of anger from followers of the books), however it robs the purpose of their survival: that the bravest amongst us can are available unlikely sizes and shapes, and that these “unimportant” to the world at giant can play grand roles in saving it. Thankfully, as we all know, these calls for by no means made it far. “I think Pete quite rightly was like, ‘This is a luminary piece of written work, and we need to stick close to the text,’” Monaghan added. “So, he stuck by his guns. Yeah, I’m thankful that didn’t happen.” We’ll increase a full pint of the Prancing Pony’s most interesting to that.

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