Peter Jackson Reportedly Faced Pressure to Kill off Hobbits in Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has universally been recognized as the best telling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic series. However, things could have gone a lot differently in the films, according to two of its stars. 

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In a recent interview with IGN, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who played Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took, respectively, revealed that at one point in the trilogy’s production, Peter Jackson was facing pressure “from above” to kill off one of the film’s four main hobbits. Of course, this would have been a huge deviation from the source material, which has all four hobbits surviving their journey through Middle-earth. 

The actors said that eventually, Jackson was able to fully reject the request from the producers, and was able to deliver a more true version of the books as a result. When asked which hobbit he thinks would have been the one to bite the dust, Monaghan said that he was fairly certain it would have been Merry. 

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“It’s a good job that didn’t happen because it would have been me,” he said. “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.”

Thankfully for Monaghan and fans of the classic story, no hobbits were killed in the film adaptation. 

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