The Lord of the Rings is a series of three fantasy films directed by Peter Jackson. While there are many scenes of this film series that fans may have watched on binge, they forget that some crucial scenes were missing from the theatrical cuts.
It happened with the case of Christopher Lee in particular. Lee was upset that his death scene didn’t make the final cut and was only included in the DVD extras when he saw Return of the Kings‘ endings.
Christopher Lee Found His Absence in The Lord of the Rings Movies Surprising
Christopher Lee was an avid fan of The Lord of the Rings books and re-read them every year. In the commentary, Lee said that he always dreamt of playing Gandalf for many years. But soon, he realized he was too old, which physically limited him to be considered for the role. Anyway, he ended up portraying the villain, Saruman.
Recently, when Lee watched The Lord of the Rings movies in sequence, he was surprised to see that his character Saruman didn’t have a death scene in The Two Towers (unlike in the books). He also noticed that he was one of the main cast members who didn’t appear in The Return of the King at all.
Speaking to University College Dublin students in 2011 (via Yahoo) about the movie series, Lee said:
“We were all shown the films in private, and when the third film came on, I couldn’t believe what I saw, because I wasn’t in it. The scene is one of the most important scenes in the whole trilogy, because it’s Saruman, the great mortal enemy, the most evil of them all, against the Fellowship.”
He said that the scene was a crucial final confrontation between the main Lord of the Rings characters where he’s “on top of the tower at Isengard, looking down at the Fellowship, and saying very nasty things to them, to Aragorn, ‘this man from the woods will never be king.’”
The actor said that “it was a long sequence, the final confrontation between the Fellowship and their greatest enemy.” And he saw that it wasn’t in the film. The Man with the Golden Gun star expressed his frustration with Jackson, which is valid.
Christopher Lee Disappointed by Saruman’s Theatrical Omission
Lee expressed his disappointment that Saruman’s fate was omitted from the theatrical release. He said (via Yahoo):
“No one could understand it. There were millions of hits on the internet, not just from Tolkien fans and film fans, but from everybody who had seen the first two. They said ‘what happened to Saruman?’ Buy the extended DVD.”
Although the 93-year-old initially felt resentment towards the LOTR director for the omission but later reconciled. Fortunately, Lee was returned for the Hobbit movies, and the extended editions are now definitive.
Now, the anticipations are high for upcoming Middle-earth projects, including Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim and The Rings of Power season 2.
