15 Things That Almost Completely Changed The Hobbit Trilogy

10. The Bridge Film

For a while, the second film in the proposed Hobbit series was going to be something else entirely to what finally made it to screens. It would have been one half of a double-act, but rather than explicitly following events in The Hobbit text, it was envisaged as a "bridge movie" to the Lord Of The Rings, bringing back characters from that trilogy in what amounted to a sequel. Obviously the simple logistics of that would have been problematic (like turning Martin Freeman into Ian Holm), and that's not to mention the fact that there's not a great deal of action to sell an entire movie. The pinnacle would pretty much have been the meeting of Aragorn and Legolas and Strider setting up the watch on the Shire; that's not exactly a great deal of intrigue. The alternative of course might have seen a more potted history (including the Moria tragedy, but then that would rob the revelation in The Lord Of The Rings of its impact). Not that that stops most prequels.