Entertainment
What’s in the Five Lord of the Rings Chapters That Stephen Colbert’s Movie Will Cover?
For the first time in more than 20 years, we have not one, but two The Lord of the Rings movies in development, as Peter Jackson recently announced The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of the Past. This new project is co-written by none other than one of the biggest Lord of the Rings buffs around, Stephen Colbert, and he has already told fans what the story is all about: the very early days of Frodo’s (Elijah Wood) quest carrying the One Ring, told in chapters III to VIII of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. These chapters are not part of Jackson’s film trilogy, so what’s so special about them that prompts a whole new movie?
Chapters III to V of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ Cover Frodo’s Departure From the Shire
The chapters mentioned by Colbert are part of Book 1 of The Fellowship of the Ring, including “Three Is Company,” “A Shortcut to Mushrooms,” “A Conspiracy Unmasked,” “The Old Forest,” “In the House of Tom Bombadil,” and “Fog on the Barrow-downs.” Although they were ultimately cut from Jackson’s movie, they set up some important and surprising aspects of Frodo’s story as Ring-bearer, as well as how the whole Shire had a part to play in helping him.
Considering Gandalf (Ian McKellen) told him not to draw attention, Frodo had to come up with a plan to justify his leaving Hobbiton, so he actually sells Bag End to Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and buys a small house in Crickhollow, closer to Buckland, where his mother was from and his cousin, Merry (Dominic Monaghan), lives. He has help from Merry, Pippin (Billy Boyd), Samwise (Sean Astin), and Fatty Bolger, all of whom already know all about the One Ring.
On their way to Crickhollow, Frodo and his party have their first encounter with the Elves and, later, the Nazgûl (which is being featured in the film). They are also welcomed by Farmer Maggott before continuing on their way. When they arrive in Crickhollow, they decide that Fatty should stay behind to give the impression that Frodo is still there. Finally moving on from the Shire, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin proceed to the Old Forest.
Chapters VI to VIII Cover the Hobbits’ Early Adventures and Introduce a Fan-Favorite Character
The Old Forest shares a distant connection to Fangorn Forest; its trees aren’t Ents, but they are more aware and act slowly out of their own free will. The Hobbits have a hard time passing through it, as the forest doesn’t like strangers, and Merry and Pippin are lulled and almost swallowed by Old Man Willow, an ancient tree. Frodo and Sam are unsuccessful in trying to rescue them, and only when Tom Bombadil arrives, telling it to “eat, dig, drink and sleep,” does the tree comply.
Shadows of the Past also has the chance to finally bring Tom Bombadil to the big screen, as he plays a large role in chapters VI to VIII. He rescues the Hobbits from the Old Forest and welcomes them into his home, where he lives with his wife, Goldberry. Bombadil is one of the most mysterious characters in The Lord of the Rings; the One Ring has no effect on him whatsoever, and he is older than the world itself. When Frodo asks Goldberry who or what exactly Bombadil is, she simply answers: “He is.”
After eating a lot and sharing stories, the Hobbits move on toward Bree. After falling asleep, they wake up in the thick fog of the Barrow-downs, a region east of the Old Forest inhabited by evil spirits known as the Barrow-wights. The party is almost trapped forever there, but are rescued once again by Tom Bombadil, who simply sings a song commanding the Barrow-wights to leave and disperse — and they obey. The Hobbits then collect some ancient Númenórean weapons there and move on to Bree.
Stephen Colbert’s Movie Could Lean More on the Fable Side of ‘The Lord of the Rings’
The whole premise of Shadows of the Past is to tell the story of those six chapters through the eyes of Elanor Gardner, Sam’s daughter, who “has discovered a long-buried secret” about “why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.” In those chapters, although the Hobbits knew the importance of the One Ring, their mission was still to simply take it to Bree, where Gandalf said he would meet them and figure out how to take it to Rivendell.
At that point, the whole story still feels more like a fable, filled with magical beings and places instead of the overwhelming evil we usually think about. It’s a much lighter reading, with a more whimsical story, fitting perfectly within the idea of the Hobbits learning the world can be a dangerous place as a prelude to everything they will accomplish later on. Seeing how the movie also suddenly introduces Merry and Pippin, this may feel like a story that Frodo and Sam “hid” from the others so as not to alarm anyone about how much danger the Shire was really in.
As to Elanor, it makes perfect sense that she be the one to find out. When Sam departs into the West, he entrusts her with the Red Book of Westmarch, the book Frodo and Bilbo (Ian Holm) wrote with the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. If Peter Jackson’s trilogies tell these stories, it would make sense that Sam includes these chapters when he has the book, as Frodo and Bilbo clearly left them out. And it also makes sense for someone other than Jackson to tell us this story in our world — someone like Stephen Colbert.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S.
- Release Date
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December 19, 2001
- Runtime
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178 Minutes
- Writers
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Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, J.R.R. Tolkien
- Producers
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Barrie M. Osborne, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Mark Ordesky, Robert Shaye, Tim Sanders
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