10 Lord Of The Rings Book Characters We're Thankful Were Left Out Of The Movies
You thought Tom Bombadil was the only one axed from the movies? Think again.
Considering the extended cut of The Lord of the Rings is a bum-numbing 682 minutes, you would safely assume the film adaptations cover absolutely everything from JRR Tolkien's classic novel.
Despite a combined run time of over 11 hours, though, there was plenty cut out of Peter Jackson's epic trilogy.
We're not just talking about a handful of scenes here and there. Entire characters got the chop. The realm of Middle-Earth is so mindbogglingly big, there was no possible way everyone was going to make it into the movies.
Even though some characters are iconic and entertaining, they may be superfluous to the overall plot. For example, Tom Bombadil is so pointless to the story, it's been a running gag since the book was first published. But dear Old Tom isn't the only character that got nixed.
Elrond's twins, Saruman's spy and a shapeshifting phantom are only a handful of characters who didn't get the live-action treatment. Even though some fans were disappointed not to see Quickbeam, Elrohir or Halbarad, it was for the best that these characters were removed for The Lord of the Rings films - and here's why!
10. Quickbeam
In The Two Towers, Merry and Pippin find themselves being hunted by an Orc through Fangorn forest where they encounter the leader of the Ents, Treebeard. When the tree elder learns Saruman has torched many of his people, Treebeard sends a call out to all the Ents, declaring war upon the white wizard.
Even though dozens of Ents march alongside their mentor, Treebeard is the only one that the film focuses on. But in the novel, the Ent leader regularly interacts with Bregalad, who is better-known as Quickbeam due to his rapid speaking and impulsive behaviour. The young rowan tree resided in the mountains of Isengard before Saruman torched his home, forcing Quickbeam to move into Fangorn forest, where he allied with Treebeard. After seeing his grove being incinerated, Quickbeam was the first one to declare an assault on Isengard. It was also Quickbeam who looked after Merry and Pippin, not Treebeard.
But because the film already has a bajillion characters, Peter Jackson thought it was simple to focus on one Ent and had many of Quickbeam's defining moments repurposed to Treebeard.