Various facts you may or may not know.

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  • Alison Dooty had to turn down the part of Eowyn because of her having a baby.

  • Orlando Bloom originally tried out for the part of Faramir.

  • Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001), Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002), and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) were filmed simultaneously.

  • In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saurman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.

  • Scenes were re-shot with the Witch King because his helmet was too similar to Sauron's in The Fellowship Of The Ring and Peter Jackson was concerned that audiences would confuse the two.

  • The first film in the trilogy had 560 computer-generated effects. "The Two Towers" had 800 and "Return of the King" has 1500.

  • Director Cameo RotK: [Peter Jackson] One of the mercenaries on the boats headed for Minas Tirtith.

  • Cameo: [Christian Rivers] Art Director and Storyboard Artist, appears as one of the Gondorian soldiers watching the beacon in Minas Tirith.

  • Sean Astin's daughter, Alexandra Astin, plays Sam Gamgee's daughter, Elanor. Sarah McLeod's daughter, 'Maisie McLeod-Riera', plays Sam and Rosie's son Frodo.

  • While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without him realizing it

  • The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.

  • Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he killed every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.

  • Cameo: [Royd Tolkien] (the author's great-grandson) as a Gondorian Ranger.

  • Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson. They each thought they got the only one.

  • Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.

  • The film was shipped to theatres under the name "Till Death For Glory".