Elijah Wood's Frodo Will Appear in The Hobbit Movies

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Elijah Wood's Frodo Will Appear in The Hobbit Movies



Sources have confirmed that Elijah Wood will reprise his role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's two-part adaptation of The Hobbit.

Everyone knew that Peter Jackson would take liberties in portraying the comparatively short tale of The Hobbit over two films by borrowing heavily from the immense backstory written by J.R.R. Tolkien. For instance, we know that Cate Blanchett will appear as the elf queen Galadriel despite not being mentioned in Tolkien's prequel to the Lord of the Rings. But The One Ring.net has confirmed that Elijah Wood will also appear in the films, despite the events of The Hobbit occurring nearly 80 years before Frodo takes the Ring to Mordor (and 27 years before Frodo was even born.) How does that work, you might ask? Well, read on only if you don't mind knowing the narrative framework of a work before you consume it. In other words:

THAR BE SPOILERS HERE

The opening sequences of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit will feature Elijah Wood as Frodo reading through his adoptive father's adventures written in the fictional Red Book of Westmarch aka There and Back Again. Remember the big red book that Bilbo is seen writing in the Extended Edition of The Fellowship of the Ring film and that Frodo is later seen recording his story in The Return of the King? That book also contains Bilbo's account of his adventure to the Lonely Mountain with Thorin Oakenshield's band of dwarves and Jackson is using Frodo reading the story as a framing device for the The Hobbit films.

It's an ingenius way to not only draw in fans of the original films but also cater to hardcore fans of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Frodo will be able to experience Bilbo's story, while leaving it open for characters like Gandalf (hopefully played by the as yet unconfirmed Ian McKellen) to drop by and add their insight to the story. For example, with Galadriel, Saruman and Radagast (another Wizard) confirmed to appear in the film, maybe Gandalf will report on attending a meeting of the White Council and the subsequent attack on Dol Guldur just as Bilbo (played by Martin Freeman) and company traverse the forest of Mirkwood.

As an admitted Tolkien fanboy, I quite like the direction that Jackson is taking with The Hobbit portraying so much more of the story of Middle Earth. Here's hoping it lives up to his treatment of the The Lord of the Rings and offers an experience that captures the feel and tone of the original works while limiting any changes in the story to make it more cinematic.

Source: The One Ring [http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/01/07/41520-elijah-wood-will-be-in-the-hobbit/]

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knhirt

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Nov 9, 2009
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Sounds fantastic. I'm getting quite hyped up indeed, for this movie.
 

Slaanax

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Oct 28, 2009
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As my younger cousin says "that's a good Ideal" it's an interesting touch to my favorite book of the series.
 

Wolfram23

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At first I was like "Huh?" But then I was like "Yay!"

Yeah... sounds good to me! I like the idea, sounds like there'll be a narrative with some interesting interjections.
 

Nocta-Aeterna

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Aug 3, 2009
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Seeing as the book "The Hobbit" itself was supposedly Tolkien's translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, it itself was narrated post-adventure by Bilbo himself, which makes this framing device all the more awesome. Though, perhaps it would be just as good if it was Sam reading to his kids (I distinctly remember Frodo leaving the Red Book with Sam when leaving for Valinor).

My only question is: Why suddenly include Radagast? He hadn't interacted with either Bilbo or Frodo and only briefly appeared in The Fellowship to deliver a message to Gandalf. Just wondering =/
 

ThePeaceFrog

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hopefully it won't detract too much from the simple style of the original material, but it does sound interesting.
 

Jamous

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I trust Mister Jackson's ability. I'm pretty sure he'll do this right... If he does it'll be fucking brilliant. If not, it'll be awful. I'm hoping for brilliant personally. :p
 

Woodsey

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Nocta-Aeterna said:
Seeing as the book "The Hobbit" itself was supposedly Tolkien's translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, it itself was narrated post-adventure by Bilbo himself, which makes this framing device all the more awesome. Though, perhaps it would be just as good if it was Sam reading to his kids (I distinctly remember Frodo leaving the Red Book with Sam when leaving for Valinor).
There's quite a long time (over a year I think, at least) in between them returning from Mordor and him leaving, so perhaps Frodo read it before writing Lord of the Rings.
 

Nocta-Aeterna

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Woodsey said:
Nocta-Aeterna said:
Seeing as the book "The Hobbit" itself was supposedly Tolkien's translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, it itself was narrated post-adventure by Bilbo himself, which makes this framing device all the more awesome. Though, perhaps it would be just as good if it was Sam reading to his kids (I distinctly remember Frodo leaving the Red Book with Sam when leaving for Valinor).
There's quite a long time (over a year I think, at least) in between them returning from Mordor and him leaving, so perhaps Frodo read it before writing Lord of the Rings.
True, but I just thought that would be a nice framing device as well.
 

Monshroud

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Jul 29, 2009
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That sounds like an interesting idea, and I would trust that the people involved have the skill and talent to pull it off. I just hope there isn't an extra hour or so of film that is just filler to make it the length they want...
 

JWRosser

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I cannot wait for this film.

I am very much hoping Ian Mckellen reprises his role, similarly to Christopher Lee.

Radagast is an interesting choice. Wonder who will play him. It's been years since I read the book, but neither he nor Saruman appeared did they? Correct me if I'm wrong.
I hope Thraduil is in it too
.
Also, the Battle of Five Armies is going to me IMMENSE.
 

samsonguy920

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Mar 24, 2009
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I have to admit that is cool license, and does help bring in the LOTR movies crowd as well that aren't as well-versed in the books.
And when you take into consideration that Galadriel is part of the White Council and it has been pretty much confirmed that the battle at Dol Guldur will also feature on-screen in the movie, then it's not like Jackson is going out of his way here. Heck, he has the opportunity to be faithful to the story of Bilbo on his journey while having some fun on his own portraying a battle that happened off-scene in the book. And Jackson does do battle good.
 

Alar

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Dec 1, 2009
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Very much yay. I sincerely hope that this movie gets done as quickly and as well as possible.
 

Zetsubou-Sama

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Mar 31, 2010
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Echo136 said:
I dont even remember Frodo being mentioned in the book. Odd.
He isn't, but he does read/write on the book in the trilogy, the Hobbit movie is Frodo reading the book.
 

vrbtny

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Sep 16, 2009
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So it's not really the hobbit anymore? More like "THE LORD OF THE RINGS : THE TOTALLY UNNECESSARY YET AWESOME BACK STORY + EVEN MORE UNNECESSARY WORLD BUILDING WHICH IS ALSO MORE AWESOME THAN IT HAD THE RIGHT TO BE!!"

Yeah..... I see why they didn't go with that. Not very catchy.

TLOTRTTUYABS+EMUWBWIAMOATIHATRTB