The upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series from Amazon Studios is set to be a major milestone in fantasy storytelling, which has earned some rumors that the series could potentially include nudity and love scenes, though the stars of the original trilogy from Peter Jackson pointed out that there was almost nudity in one of those films, yet it would have served more of a comedic purpose than the rumors about the Amazon series suggest. Were the films to have included the described scene, fans likely would have been more tolerable to it, unlike the fans who have already launched a petition against the rumored nudity in the TV series.
“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,” Boyd revealed to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “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.”
Clearly, the lack of implication regarding any sort of sexual activity would have been much tamer, though it’s unknown why the scene ultimately never came together.
The debut of HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2011 and subsequent popularity fundamentally changed the landscape of fantasy storytelling in a TV series, as it took the amount of violence and nudity to levels rarely seen in similar fare. The rumors regarding the adult content in the Amazon series stemmed from a reported casting announcement, which claimed, “Comfortable with Nudity? Up to $500 per day. Use reference NUDE. We need Nude people based in Auckland – age 18 plus, all shapes and sizes (Intimacy guidelines will always be followed on set).”
In the wake of these reports, a petition was launched in hopes of maintaining a more wholesome adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world, claiming that the narrative honored Christian values, which these fans hoped would remain intact. To date, more than 50,000 signatures have been added to the petition.
Stay tuned for details on the new The Lord of the Rings series from Amazon Studios.
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