Lord of the Rings stars Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd have revealed that the director of the hit trilogy, Peter Jackson, was pressured by the studio to kill off one of the hobbits - and they think it would have been Merry!
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Chatting on The Friendship Onion podcast, the actors, who played the cheeky duo Merry and Pippin in the trio of films, opened up about which hobbit would have been killed off.
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Dominic said: “It’s a good job that didn’t happen, because it would have been me. It definitely would have. There’s no way they are killing Frodo and Sam, and the only ones that would be left would be Merry and Pippin.
Dominic thinks his character Merry would have been the one hobbit to die
“They wouldn’t kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf. It would have definitely been me. I think Pete quite rightly was like, ‘This is a luminary piece of written work, and we need to stick close to the text.’ So, he stuck by his guns. Yeah, I’m thankful that didn’t happen.”
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The four hobbits - Frodo, Samwise, Merry and Pippin - were once at risk of being killed off
In the films, Merry nearly dies after helping Eowyn kill a Ring Wraith, but is found and looked after by his best friend, Pippin. In the end, the hobbits all safely return to the Shire after being thanked by Aragorn and the people of Gondor for their service. However, unable to settle in the Shire after his traumatic experience while destroying the ring, Frodo eventually leaves to go to the Undying Lands with his uncle Bilbo, Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond.
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