Although Peter Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings saga makes many tweaks in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s world to the big screen, it is by and large a faithful adaptation. But pressure from the studio in one weird way would\u2019ve taken it down a very different path: a bit of halfling havoc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to IGN about their new Lord of the Rings podcast series\u2014called \u201cFriendship Onion\u201d\u2014Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd (who played Merry and Pippin) touched upon a time when pressure from executives above the Lord of the Rings production team wanted to amplify the stakes of the series by killing off one of its four smallest stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apparently, the tall folk were off-limits, and the stakes of, say, a massive war between the forces of good and evil for the fate of all Middle-earth could only be raised if you found one of the cutest hobbits around and stabbed them to death or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good job that didn\u2019t happen, because it would have been me,\u201d Monaghan joked to IGN. \u201cIt definitely would have. There\u2019s no way they are killing Frodo and Sam, and the only ones that would be left would be Merry and Pippin. They wouldn\u2019t kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf. It would have definitely been me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Merry and Pippin find themselves placed into the kinds of peril that might undo even the bravest of Shirefolk as the trilogy builds to its conclusion, of course. In Return of the King, Pippin is roped into the servitude of Denethor and fights alongside Gandalf in the siege of Minas Tirith, while Merry, hoisted to the side of an in-disguise Eowyn, rides with the Rohirrim to flank the forces of Mordor on Pelennor Fields. But\u2026 c\u2019mon. You can\u2019t kill them! It\u2019d go against the spirit of the books! And not just because they survive alongside Sam and Frodo to return to the Shire\u2014and in the books face the forces of \u201cSharkey\u201d and \u201cWorm\u201d (a.k.a. Saruman and Grima Wormtounge) as they assault the Shire\u2014but because one of Lord of the Rings\u2019 most beloved themes are about \u201csmall folk\u201d rising to the occasion and enduring in the face of monumental odds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n