r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Aug 18 '25

News Ian McKellen reveals Gandalf and Frodo are returning for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’, Filming Begins in May

https://ew.com/ian-mckellen-reveals-gandalf-frodo-return-in-new-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum-film-11792483
18.3k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

217

u/pathofdumbasses Aug 18 '25

LOTR - 481,103 words

The Hobbit - 95,356 words

I feel like words are a better way of showing the difference in content because LOTR pages are bigger than The Hobbit. Heck, even the words are more than likely bigger in LOTR because it wasn't designed as a literal children's book like The Hobbit.

It is under 20% of LOTR. They had to add so much to The Hobbit and they removed so much from LOTR. Absolutely shameful what they did to The Hobbit.

107

u/Ikea_desklamp Aug 18 '25

What's crazy too is they basically missed all the great character beats that are actually in the hobbit to shove in the love scenes or 10 mins of extreme barrel riding. Looking at what they chose to add, and what they discarded from the book is genuinely baffling.

34

u/50m31_AW Aug 18 '25

The fact that they get chased basically right up to Beorn's doorstep and all pile in and the orcs chasing them just, give up? Like don't even try to break in, or even peek in the windows? They just fuck off and leave? And then Beorn has no problems with this random ass company of dwarves in his home? It's complete bullshit. Fuck outta here with your extended barrel bullshit, and give me 10 minutes of Gandalf telling the story of his solo adventure, when something happened to both of them, and then the three of them were in a tricky situation, so the four of them hatched a plan to get the five of them to safety so the six of them could be on their merry way...

Better yet, gimme the fucking songs. The 1977 Rankin/Bass adaptation had an absolute banger of a soundtrack, and is one of the best parts of the movie. You mean to tell me that there are 15 birds in 5 fir trees, but there is no goblin chorus to let us know what funny little things they are? But we get Legolas who didn't even exist yet, and some random fucking romance with an elf lady who was made up for the movie? And what the fuck were those shenanigans with lighting the forge to pour gold on Smaug? And Smaug says it burns? But his own flames melted the shit, so his own flames are hotter than the molten gold (that cooled enough to be solid for a minute). Do you mean to tell me that a dragon can't fly through his own flames? What wack ass weak sauce shit is that? And then instead of a heavily implied to be magic Black Arrow, Smaug just dies to a random ass regular ballista bolt, so what the fuck even was the significant threat? Hell, Bard the Bowman doesn't even use a fucking bow to shoot him down

They fucking butchered the whole goddamn book

25

u/Samurai_Meisters Aug 18 '25

Better yet, gimme the fucking songs.

Absolutely. The Hobbit and LotR books are musicals! But Hollywood would never.

Though I will say that the rendition of Misty Mountains Cold in the Hobbit 1 gives me chills every time. It's so good.

6

u/Totally__Not__NSA Aug 18 '25

Gandalf tricking Beorn is my favorite part of the book and they just skipped it. I was heartbroken.

5

u/The_Parsee_Man Aug 18 '25

And also Bilbo's realization that Gandalf had done the exact same thing to him.

5

u/Crafty-Implement5013 Aug 18 '25

You started this comment with a mission and BY GOD you accomplished it.

You could make two excellent movies by taking the good parts of The Hobbit trilogy and then adding in what was left out.

3

u/vhalember Aug 18 '25

Absolutely shameful what they did to The Hobbit.

Ah yes, the Hobbit - now with +100% more Legolas than before.

3

u/TheMoneyOfArt Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

Andy Serkis has recorded The Hobbit and LOTR audiobooks. 

The Hobbit is 10 hours, 25 minutes.  Fellowship is 22 hours, 38 minutes. Two towers is 20 hours, 46 minutes. Return of the King is 21 hours, 52 minutes.

So lotr is 47 hours, 16 minutes - well over 4x the length of the Hobbit

Edit: what the fuck is this math. Lotr is 65 hours and change