November 2, 2002

Speculations About TTT
Razors

A few ideas about the upcoming TTT movie...

First of all, Gandalf's return from the dead. To me, this seems like a perfect opportunity to explain to the movie audience about who and what Gandalf really is, and why death is a mere inconvenience to him. Hopefully that's how they'll handle it.

Second, the defeat of Saruman. I think it's safe to say that the movie will actually show the Ents attacking Isengard, the same way the first film showed Boromir's last stand against the Uruk-Hai. But based on that controversial photograph that did the rounds on the net all those months ago, I suspect that Saruman will get killed at this point. This makes sense, since I seem to remember hearing reports that the Scouring of the Shire won't happen in the movies. I have to say that's hunky-dory by me - I personally thought that part of the story was unneccesary and more than a little silly. Go ahead and abuse me, I don't care.

Thirdly - given all the fuss about the movie being called "The Two Towers" after 9/11, how will people react to the Southrons being amongst the bad guys? I mean, they're supposed to be a "swarthy", desert-dwelling race of Men, right? And they basically get their kicked by Faramir and his men in defence of the "free peoples of Middle-Earth". So how many micro-seconds will it take for some idiot to read between the non-existent lines and start ranting on about anti-terrorist propoganda?

And finally - since PJ has already said that Shelob won't appear until ROTK - how will TTT end?

Any ideas?