The Lord of the Rings movies are generally seen as being near perfect films. As adaptations of one of the most popular works of literature and as one of the most complete and comprehensive film productions ever undertaken, they're simply without equal. It's difficult to think of anything that is truly missing from the three Lord of the Rings films. Except, possibly, naked hobbits. If you don't find Lord of the Rings quite sexy enough, it seems there was perhaps almost a scene in one movie that would have had Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd completely naked, and it sounds hilarious.
Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and they were discussing the upcoming new Lord of the Rings series planned by Amazon. The question of whether the show could go in a more adult direction came up, which was when Billy Boyd revealed that there was perhaps an opportunity for nudity in the original films, specifically, in The Two Towers. As Boyd explained...
Here’s the thing. There was almost nudity in the movies... Philippa Boyes... She wrote a scene, because we’d been doing some kind of gags and winding people up…[and] she said, ‘Oh, it’s a new scene we’re filming next week, with the Ents, with Treebeard. When Merry and Pippin are up Treebeard, he gets afraid and shakes his branches, which makes you guys fall... and as you hit all the branches on the way down, by the time you hit the ground, you’re naked. And Merry turns to Pippin and says, ‘It’s cold, isn’t it?’ And Pippin says, ‘Hold me, Merry.
As funny as this sounds, and it also seems perfect for these characters, it seems that maybe there was never really an intention to put this scene in the movies. Billy Boyd refers to it as a gag from Philippa Boyes that was a response to the fun that Boyd and Dominic Monaghan were having on the set. At the same time, Boyd is clear that the scene was presented to them in the same way that the rest of the script was given to the cast, and the two actors discussed the scene as if it were really planned. They seemed to think that it was real.
For what it's worth, Dominic Monaghan was apparently totally willing to do the scene. He tells Lord of the Rings nerd Stephen Colbert that he has a great ass and was looking forward to showing it off. Apparently, since the scene didn't happen, we'll never know.
Whether we'll see some naked asses, or anything else, in the new Lord of the Rings, we'll have to wait and see. Certainly, nudity on streaming and cable series has become a fairly regular occurrence, especially in fantasy shows. Whether the show will follow Game of Thrones or aim for a more general audience, we'll have to wait and see it to be sure.
