Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has gone down in history as one of the greatest of all time. Taking the fantastic J.R.R. Tolkien books and bringing them to live with an amazing trio of fantasy adventure movies that took the details and put them into the film in expert detail. Everyone’s favorite characters were brought to life and Peter Jackson really did a fantastic job at making sure as much of the content from the books made it into the films.
He added plenty of Easter Eggs and hidden details along the way for fans to look out for. However, with so much going on within the movies, it is easy to overlook certain moments. Whether it be facts from behind the scenes or things that are in plain sight. Here are 10 hidden details from Fellowship of the Ring that you didn’t know about.
Eye Color Change
If you pay close attention throughout the movie to Legolas, you might notice that his eye color often changes between different scenes. This isn’t some magical elvish power that he has picked up along the way, but it is, in fact, all to do with helping Orlando Bloom.
The blue contact lenses that Bloom wore in the film would have damaged his eyes if he had worn them all of the time. Because of that, some days he didn’t wear them and forgot to put them in, with the visual effects team changing it for some scenes. Some scenes saw him have blue eyes and others had him with brown.
Hobbiton Exists
One of the highlights of Fellowship of the Ring is the early moments shot in The Shire. The movie starts out very upbeat with some fantastic music and amazing scenery, it really does start the film in the perfect way. But because it looks so good, many people mistake Hobbiton for a fantastic movie set.
However, that isn’t the case as this was actually all filmed in a real place. Hobbiton does exist, as it is actually known as Alexander Farm in New Zealand. Obviously, additional work was done to transform it into something that would exist in Middle Earth, but this isn’t a fantastic set, but rather a real place that people can still visit, to this day.
Gimli’s Height
When you see Fellowship of the Ring and see the group together, Gimli is obviously one of the smallest people in the entire movie. Alongside the Hobbits, he is the tiniest member of the group, but that is just a little bit of classic movie magic.
In actual fact, John Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli, is actually one of the tallest members of the cast. Standing at 6-foot-1, Peter Jackson used different scaled sets and scale double actors to create the illusion of size amongst the characters, which was perfectly done.
The Original Aragorn
One of the key characters of this franchise, right from the start is Aragorn. He is the leader of the men and someone who ultimately steps up as a true leader of the Fellowship. An incredible swordsman who is very capable in battle, while also having plenty of heart and emotion, he quickly became a fan favorite.
Viggo Mortensen brought the character to life in an excellent manner, with his performances being highly praised throughout. However, he wasn’t the original pick to play the part as Stuart Townsend was originally cast and even filmed some scenes. Still, Peter Jackson felt that he was too young to play the role, and Viggo was given the part.
Christopher Lee’s Meeting With Tolkien
Out of all the cast, Christopher Lee was the only person to actually meet J.R.R. Tolkien himself, and when he discussed it with him the writer gave him his blessing to play Gandalf. This was the part that the legendary character wanted to have, and he did actually audition for the part.
However, when he auditioned, Peter Jackson asked Lee to play the character of Saruman instead as he felt that Lee was too old to play Gandalf. He also felt that Ian McKellen was the right person to be Gandalf and therefore he was cast in this way.
Jackon’s Children
It isn’t unnatural to see directors and actors bring in family members to set and even into the movies themselves for brief cameo appearances. The Fellowship of the Ring happens to have one of those moments within it during Bilbo Baggins’ birthday party.
At that moment, you can see Peter Jackson’s two children, Billy and Katie being amongst the children that are listening to Bilbo tell his adventures. This is no doubt a cool moment for the two of them to talk about now that they’re older, but it is something people wouldn’t have known about simply just watching the film.
Peter Jackson Cameo
Speaking of cameos, it isn’t just Peter Jackson’s children who make an appearance within Fellowship of the Ring, as Jackson himself actually appears at one point. The director actually makes an appearance in all of the Lord of the Ring movies, as well as all three of The Hobbit movies.
Within this movie, Jackson can be seen when the Hobbits arrive at the Prancing Pony in Bree. When the group arrives at the inn, Jackson can be spotted outside chomping away on a carrot. It’s only a quick glimpse, but he is there for those with eagle-eyes ready to catch him.
Snow Battles
The blizzard on Caradhras is one of the most iconic and memorable moments from Fellowship of the Ring, and the film is shot so well that it looks like they are in a perfect snowstorm. However, when they shot these scenes it was actually shot on a sound stage.
In order to make the snow look as realistic as possible, they actually used a rice-based compound to make things appear just like snow within the film. However, this actually irritated the skin and eyes of the actors, so it wasn’t quite ideal.
Broken Glass
At the end of Fellowship of the Ring, Sam attempts to stop Frodo from completing the journey to Mordor on his own. In this scene, Sam runs into the water, despite the fact that the character can’t swim in order to try and stop Frodo, proving what a good friend he is.
However, what many people don’t know is that when filming this Sean Astin actually stepped on a piece of broken glass. During the Extended Edition of the movie, Peter Jackson reveals that the bleeding was so serious he had to actually be taken to hospital to deal with the situation.
Flood Destruction
Something that fans aren’t aware of is the fact that an entire scene had to be taken out of the movie towards the end of the movie. This was because of the set being destroyed by weather, with the set being destroyed by a flood, meaning that the plans to film were ended.
The scene would have seen the fellowship ambushed by a group of orcs that would have led to an amazing action scene. There were plans for boats to be flipping and Legolas firing away at the enemies while he tries to stay afloat.
