Parents aren’t supposed to pick favorites. They love all of their children equally. Actors, similarly, shouldn’t really single out favorites, especially when the movie is part of a trilogy that, when taken together, adds up into one epic adaptation of a beloved fantasy text. But Elijah Wood has had years to reflect back on his time as a Hobbit in The Lord of the Rings, and during a frank conversation recently on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, he finally broke down and revealed which film in the trilogy was his favorite, and why.
Elijah Wood first played Frodo Baggins in the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. During a conversation with the ReelBlend podcast, Wood admitted that Fellowship is his favorite film of the trilogy, telling our hosts:
The feeling of shooting Fellowship was always extraordinary because of that group dynamic. Specifically, for me, it was getting to spend time with the four Hobbits as a unit, which was so lovely, and we all were so close. Being with Viggo (Mortensen) and Sean Bean and Orlando (Bloom), having that whole unit and working together on some of those sequences was just always thrilling, Most of the Fellowship stuff was shot in earlier days, so there was some cohesion to that. But yeah, I, like you, share a specific love for Fellowship of the Ring as well, as a film. There is something about that fellowship, the connection that they share, the cohesion of that journey, the start of that journey that then splinters off and becomes so many different things from The Two Towers on -- and I love those movies, too. They’re incredible, and they’re dynamic, and super emotional. But there is something really magical about The Fellowship of the Ring that is so beautiful, and I think, yeah, remains to be my favorite of the three films.
Frodo has spoken. And he’s accurate in feeling that something special had begun with that initial film, where the vast cast had to figure out how to work together, and see if they’d even be able to bring Peter Jackson’s vision for the epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s text to life. And for many, it worked. A lot of fans likely would pick The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as their favorite, being the most action-packed, and the film that brings resolution to so many threads of the journey. Also, it’s the one that finally won Best Picture for Peter Jackson, undoubtedly a “Thank you” for all of the work that he did on the trilogy. But for Elijah Wood, his favorite for now is Fellowship.
The Tolkien world is set to continue when Amazon Studios brings The Lord of the Rings to its streaming service as an eight-episode season. It won’t arrive until Sept. 2, 2022, but with all of the attention the series is drawing, you can be sure that creators J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will do their best to make it worth the wait.
