Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy could have deviated from the books in a big way if the film’s producers had gotten their way.
Fans of the films and books will know that all four Hobbits – Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin – are alive at the end of the story but it wasn’t nearly that way on the big screen.
In an interview with IGN, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who play Merry and Pippin respectively, slipped out the news that Jackson was being pressured to kill one of the foursome but he shot down the idea.
Monaghan said: “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.”
He also said that he was certain it would be his character that would be killed off: “It’s a good job that didn’t happen because it would have been me.”
Monaghan and Boyd also host a podcast entitled The Friendship Onion, where they talk about the series and give behind the scenes accounts of how the films were made.
A prequel TV series to the film trilogy is currently being filmed for Amazon.
