Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd have launched a new podcast and they’re spilling all sorts of secrets from the set of The Lord of the Rings. According to the actors, the movie trilogy could have been down one hobbit by its end.
In a new interview with IGN promoting their latest Hobbit-inspired project, The Friendship Onion, they revealed that director Peter Jackson was once pressured by studio execs to kill off one of the hobbits at the end of The Return of the King despite the fact that Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin all survive in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original source material. However, Jackson refused, keeping the foursome alive to the end of their journey.
“It’s a good job that didn’t happen, because it would have been me,” Monaghan said with a laugh. “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.”
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“They wouldn’t kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf,” the Lost actor continued. “It would have definitely been me. I think Pete quite rightly was like, ‘This is a luminary piece of written work, and we need to stick close to the text.’ So, he stuck by his guns. Yeah, I’m thankful that didn’t happen.”
In other LOTR-related news, Gollum actor Andy Serkis is tapped to narrate an upcoming audiobook version of Tolkien’s fantasy epic. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series remains in production, with a reported price tag of $465 million on the first season alone.
As for Jackson, he is gearing up to release his three-part, six hour Beatles documentary this Thanksgiving.
