Uncovering a Hidden Director Cameo in the Lord of the Rings Saga: A Secret Few Fans Have Discovered

Adapting Lord of the Rings: a challenge met with flying colors by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and their teams

Published in 1954 and 1955, The Lord of the Rings is with the Hobbit, the best-known work of JRR Tolkien, linguist and novelist. Taking place in Middle-earth, the work follows numerous characters and dwells on the fate of a certain number of them. All live under the threat of Sauron, the Dark Lord. Defeated several years ago, the latter returned to Mordor and, if he no longer has physical form, his vital force is intact. The latter's objective is to recover all the rings of power, and in particular the One Ring. Forged in secret by Sauron, it dominates all others and can plunge the world into darkness. We are not going to repeat the whole story, but know that For a long time, the novel following the quest to destroy the Ring was considered impossible to adapt.

A first scenario, widely commented on by Tolkien, could have allowed the creation of a cartoon, but this was not the case. The Beatles were interested in the subjectbut it was ultimately Ralph Bakshi who managed to do something, even if the animated film of 1978 ends at the time of the Battle of Fort Le Cor (or Helm's Deep, whichever you prefer). It is also this battle that we are going to talk about, or at least the way from which it was adapted by Peter Jackson. It is in fact the New Zealand director who managed to adapt the three volumes in the early 2000s, for unprecedented success and more than fifteen Oscars.

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Peter Jackson has a sense of family!

But back to our battle. This takes place at the end of the film The Two Towers, and represents the clash between the forces of Rohan, led by Theoden, and the armies of Isengard, remotely piloted by Saruman. Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli are present, ready to fight. The location of the battle is a fortress reputed to be impregnable, set at the bottom of a valley. Any man ready to fight was equipped, but women and children were sheltered in the caves.

When we see these caves and their terrified occupants on screen (which depends on which version you watch), you can see two children accompanied by a blonde woman. However, these children are not just anyone, since they are simply by Billy and Katie Jackson, the director's children. A fan of discreet and fun cameos, he placed his two children in all three films! We see them for the first time in the first opus, when Bilbo recounts his adventure with the trolls.

We then find them in the Two Towers, then in the Return of the King when Faramir leaves Minas Tirith fighting in a funeral atmosphere. For his part, Peter Jackson appears briefly when the Hobbits enter Bree in the first film, as a javelin-throwing soldier in Helm's Deep, and as the captain of a privateer ship in Return of the King. Shot together and released in 2001, 2002 and 2003, the films of the Lord of the Rings trilogy were global hits: The Fellowship of the Ring brought in 871 million dollars, The Two Towers went up to 926 million, while The Return of the King exploded by generating 1.19 billion. The third film was, until the release of Avatar, the second biggest success of all time behind Titanic.