25 Years Later, Lord of the Rings Star Confirms a Major Change to Their Character Cut Them From Key Scenes

It’s been 25 years since The Fellowship of the Ring kicked off Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and in celebration of the milestone, the cast and crew are reflecting on the films. And one star confirmed a surprising fact about their character: that they were initially supposed to appear in more scenes. Tragically, the Lord of the Rings movies cut down their screen time, despite their involvement shooting major moments, like the Battle of Helm’s Deep. This change saw them playing a smaller role than originally anticipated.

The star in question is Liv Tyler, who portrays Arwen in the movies. Arwen plays a pivotal part in The Fellowship of the Ring, saving Frodo from the Ringwraiths and getting him safely to Rivendell. But beyond this, she mostly serves as a love interest for Aragorn. This aligns with J.R.R. Tolkien’s source material, but in an interview with Empire, Tyler confirmed it wasn’t always the case in the films.

According to her, the early versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy saw Arwen getting far more involved in Frodo’s journey to destroy the One Ring. “My character was so interesting because she’s not in the book a lot,” she said. “Originally, when I came into the project, I was included in the Fellowship. I was in Helm’s Deep, fighting.”

This is a far cry from the final cuts, which don’t show Arwen in action beyond The Fellowship of the Ring — though her fearsome challenge to the Nazgûl offers a promising idea of what she’d bring to the table. And what makes Tyler’s admission even more disappointing is that she actually filmed those scenes. However, she noted that Arwen’s part changed multiple times, forcing her to cling to the aspects of the character that remained present through it all:

“I was there with Viggo and everyone. It was fucking hard, man. It was brutal. And it didn’t really work. Then it changed again. Over the course of three years, I didn’t always have something to hold on to with the text, so I had to really lean into this idea of unwavering love and groundedness that was the role of Arwen in the story.“

The Lord of the Rings Movies Cutting Arwen Scenes Is Disappointing, But It Makes Sense

Arwen is one of the most interesting female characters in The Lord of the Rings, and hearing what her story could have looked like, it’s hard not to feel disappointed that her role was expanded, then cut. Her entrance in The Fellowship of the Ring leaves an impression, and it’s easy to imagine how The Two Towers and The Return of the King could have built on that. However, it makes sense that The Lord of the Rings eventually went with a smaller role for her character — for a few reasons.

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For one, keeping Arwen as a more mysterious background character is more accurate to Tolkien’s story. But beyond that, it helps keep Jackson’s films flowing. They’re already incredibly lengthy, and it’s hard to see how they could have realistically fleshed out another character during their runs. Arwen’s presence also might have changed Aragorn’s behavior, taking his focus off of the main mission: protecting Frodo and destroying the One Ring. As such, it might be best that things turned out this way…though I’d totally be interested in seeing the Arwen cut.

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