These Little-Known ‘Hobbit’ Facts Will Take You Back To Middle-Earth

After the magnificent Lord of the Rings trilogy, fans were more than ready for Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle-earth to continue. Anchored by a great performance by Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit trilogy transported fans back to the world they loved, telling the story of what came first before Frodo destroyed the One Ring.

Any production this huge is bound to have some interesting things going on behind the scenes, so take a look at some of the crazy goings-on offscreen during the filming of An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug, and The Battle of the Five Armies (which is available as an extended edition in the Warner Bros. Holiday Gift Guide).

Age Is Just A Number.

Despite playing the imperious Thranduil, father of Legolas, Lee Pace is actually two years younger than Orlando Bloom. Playing ageless, ethereal beings gave them a bit more wiggle room when it came to who could be cast.

On top of that father/son conundrum, the narrative structure of the films brought back some actors from the original trilogy, including Bloom and Elijah Wood. In order for them to play younger versions of themselves, Jackson admitted to having to smooth out some wrinkles digitally in post-production.

Filming Nearly Made Sir Ian McKellen Quit Acting.

Filming technology underwent a serious amount of changes in the decade between filming Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and Peter Jackson employed a lot of green screen technology in his second trilogy. Not everyone took to this new development, however, with Sir Ian McKellen becoming so unhappy with the solitary and sterile form of filming that he nearly quit acting, after filming most of his scenes alone against a green screen to be digitally

“I felt pretty miserable,” reveals the 74-year-old star, “and thought perhaps, has the time come for me to stop acting altogether if I can’t cope with these difficulties?”

Luckily for fans, McKellen stuck it out, turning in another iconic performance as Gandalf the Grey.

Riddles In The Dark Was Filmed Like A Play.

Bilbo’s battle of wits with Gollum is one of the centerpieces of the novel, so it was important for the films to nail it. According to Andy Serkis, who played Gollum and worked as a second unit director as well, a lot of thought was put into how to best approach the scene. 

“Peter wanted to start Martin off with a one-on-one scene rather than him being surrounded by 13 dwarfs and a wizard,” said Serkis. “We shot the scene in its entirety, like doing a piece of theater really.”

This thinking ended up paying off in dividends, because the scene is easily the best in the trilogy. The combined powers of Serkis and Martin Freeman brought Tolkien’s words to vivid life. Still, it was quite the ordeal, with filming for that single scene taking a week, according to Jackson.

“I decided to give Martin and Andy a chance to develop both the scene and the characters by shooting a lot of the takes. A lot of the camera angles and a lot of the takes we shot the entire scene all the way through. It was 12 pages long, so it was 9 or 10 minutes worth, and we just lit the camera around them and let them do the entire scene. We didn’t break it up into little tiny bits and pieces as you often do. I did that again for Martin’s sake more than anything just to let him be able to sort of run this through over and over again. We shot many different camera angles on it, but each angle we ran through the whole scene, so it was a week of shooting.”

Sherlock Nearly Kept Martin Freeman From Playing Bilbo.

While Freeman was Peter Jackson’s first choice to play the titular hobbit, his Sherlock schedule nearly kept him from Middle-earth. 

“I tormented myself by watching Sherlock on my iPad,” Jackson said. “And I thought, there’s nobody better, we’re insane.”

In order to keep Freeman on board, production had to be halted for a four month period for Freeman to return to London to play Watson to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock.

The Film Sped Up The Ring’s Effect.

While many things were altered in the story to further connect The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, one of the most successful was playing up the negative elements of the Ring. While the adverse effects were not mentioned in the novel, Jackson wanted to include some of the nastiness that the Ring had on Bilbo’s state of mind. Jackson explained to Collider:

“So the first time he puts it on it’s simply a magic ring, but each time he puts it on the effect of it gets to him a bit more.”

These links strengthened the continuity between the two film trilogies and expounded on Tolkien’s original vision.

Practical Effects Were Still A Huge Factor.

While this trilogy utilized more digital effects that Lord of the Rings, Jackson still worked closely with the folks and Weta Workshop, creating an insane amount of practical pieces. Wigmakers created nearly 752 wigs (91 for the core 13 dwarves alone) and 263 beards for the film. While they may have been fake, there was nothing synthetic about these hair pieces: they were all made from human or yak hair. However, Richard Armitage, who played Thorin Oakenshield, opted to grow his own beard instead of dealing with the adhesive process.

Additionally, so much gold paint went into the creation of Smaug’s lair that they used literally all that New Zealand had, forcing the crew to import more paint from Germany.

Hobbit Feet Sound Terrible.

More than 100 prosthetic feet were made for Freeman over the course of filming, and according to Freeman himself, they were more than a little awkward, and apparently forced him to move similarly to a meerkat:

“They were heavy,” he said. “And they were six inches longer than real feet. So it immediately changes the way you move.”

To add further inconvenience, Freeman had to shave his legs to make the adhesive process easier.

Stephen Colbert Got To Live The Superfan’s Dream.

Stephen Colbert has always been very open about his deep love of all things Tolkien, and he got to live out his fanboy dream by having a cameo in The Desolation Of Smaug. Complete with malevolent eye patch, Colbert got to play a spy in Laketown on Bard’s trail. It may be a blink and you’ll miss its appearance, but it was clearly a dream for Colbert, who visited the New Zealand set with his family. He spoke about the experience in an interview with Letterman:

“I don’t want to tell anybody where I am, but I’m in it … check IMDb. We’re in a scene in Laketown,” Colbert added. “I don’t want what to say what, where in the movie — it’s kind of a ‘Where’s Waldo.’ “

Lee Pace Kept A Piece Of Middle-earth.

Lee Pace’s campy yet elegant portrayal of the elven king, Thranduil, was one of the highlights of The Hobbit trilogy, riding into Jackson’s Middle-earth astride a giant stag bringing a heap of familial tension with him. Actors usually leave a project with the experience and the paycheck, but Pace wanted something a bit more tangible, admitting to keeping his sword in a Twitter Q&A.

We hope you enjoyed our look back at The Hobbit Trilogy. Our friends at Warner Bros. asked us to remind readers that The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is available for purchase on Blu-Ray/DVD and Digital HD here.