The REAL Reason One Of The Biggest Villains In Film Just Disappeared

To many avid Lord of the Rings fans, the death of Saruman not being included in the theatrical release was very confusing. To those who didn't read the Lord of the Rings books, the sudden disappearance of one of the best movie villains was even more so. But what led Peter Jackson to make the decision to cut Saruman from The Two Towers and eventually The Return of the King?

#LordOfTheRings #Saruman #Nerdstalgic

Writer - Chris Teregis
Editor - Brian Nappi

[dacypher]

I am one of those people who didn't see the films in the theater and ONLY saw the extended cuts at home. I had no idea that a ton of people hadn't seen the death of Saruman until years later and I was shocked to discover that. It feels like one of the most important scenes in that whole film.

[KibblezanBitz]

100% with Christopher Lee on this. Lee wasn't just a distinguished, esteemed veteran actor, he was the only person involved in the production to have actually met J.R.R. Tolkein. After playing such a major role in the first two parts of the trilogy, it was the best decision story-wise as well to bring closure to his character. This is why people hate when the suits get involved.

[Dan-cmow]

It's been so long since I've seen a non-extended version I didn't realize that scene was one of the extensions.

[twisterwiper]

It was indeed a strange decision to cut Saruman’s death from the picture. One of the key antagonists. Glad it made it into the extended version, which I believe has become the standard way to watch LOTR now anyway.

[johnnyCheeseburger]

It's worth mentioning Lee's relationship with Tolkien's work. He was a massive fan of The Lord of the Rings and read the books several times throughout his life. He had dreamt of playing Gandalf for years should a film adaptation ever come to be. This fantasy epic was a huge part of his life and to see it broken for the sake of 7 minutes must have been heartbreaking to say the least.

[Zero_Point_Energy]

The commitment of the fans to the extended editions was probably something no one anticipated at the time. I think at this point the extended editions are considered the “official” versions by most fans. I watched a theatrical cut for the first time in years a little while ago and there seemed to be a LOT missing - not just Saruman’s death.

[srsaito]

For everyone that doesn't know, Christopher Lee was the only one in that set that met personally Tolkien, he liked his books so much that was a tradition to him to read all the Tolkyen books once a year, so you can understand why he was so upset.

[countdooku]

No one can ever compare to the villains Sir Christopher Lee brought to life on screen. I hate that we didn't get more time with him.

[Certamaniac]

"From Lee's perspective, this was a massive betrayal."

So did he feel like he'd been stabbed in the back?

[JumbleJammyJokes]

Knowing that the shot of Saruman saying “Leave Sauron to me!” in Battle of Five Armies was the last time we would ever see Christopher Lee on screen makes me even more glad that he and Jackson reconciled. Man was an absolute legend to the end!

[josephvlogsdon]

Normally, I side with the director in situations like this, but in this case, I’m in total agreement with Christopher Lee. When I first saw The Return of the King in theaters, I was massively disappointed by Saruman’s absence. After all, he was really the only villain with a human face. I actually think placing his death at the beginning would have caused the audience to be on edge. With Saruman being killed off early, people would be constantly wondering about who could be next. It was a lost opportunity.

[megodynamite]

In the books, Saurman died in the Scorching of the Shire which was a whole story from the books that got left out due to time limitations for the films. Sorry that the whole situation wasn’t handled well, but the extended editions definitely create a fuller/better movie version of the story for sure- I love both the films and the books

[Kastor]

I think the worst part of all this, is that they ended up doing EXACTLY what Jackson said they were trying to avoid here when it came to The Hobbit and they left the Smaug climax for the last movie.

[CassBlast]

The fact that Lee found out he wasn’t in the third movie until he saw it is very telling. This story would almost certainly would have been different if someone had the balls to have a hard conversation with him.

[evan-moore]

Surprised you didn't mention the book. Saruman has quite a different ending in the book, which Lee was expecting to play, and Jackson's decision to have him die earlier (while understandable) was the first step that led to this disagreement/disappointment on Lee's side.

[FZMello]

Funny thing is, as a many-time reader of the books, I distinctly remember not expecting to see Saruman die at Orthanc. It was only after realizing that the scouring of the Shire had been omitted that I realized what a horrible loose end had been created. My cynical side immediately expected this was to use Saruman as a villain in further stories. I had no idea it had ended up on the cutting room floor.

[hunterkiller]

He wasn't cut. He was stabbed. Oh wait.

[Charismactivism]

Sadly, the theatrical release of Return of the King is quite broken. Not only is Saruman ignored, the Witch King of Angmar tells the commander of the orcs that he will confront Gandalf personally... but never does. The Return of the King is the only LOTR film where the extended edition feels necessary, rather than as an extra bonus.

[SpaceCowboy]

I'm with Lee on the fact that it was a betrayal, and I also remember thinking it was really stupid to skip out on an ending for Saruman. As far as the extended versions being a cash grab, that's a hard disagree from me. The extended versions were as close to a complete story they could have done without adding events and characters that would have changed the story they had shown in theaters. I would consider it the complete version while the theatrical version was abridged to be more reasonable to sit through in theaters.

[sonnyblacktr]

My favorite character in the trilogy due to Lee's presence, he and the Witch King of Angmar deserved more screen time in my opinion.. RIP to the great Sir Christopher Lee