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In the late 1990s, New Line Cinema entrusted director Peter Jackson with a reported $300 million to make The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And Jackson delivered arguably one of the biggest cinematic achievements of all time. Now star Viggo Mortensen — who played Aragorn — revealed a romantic scene that never made it into The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, and Orlando Bloom at the premiere of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'
Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, and Orlando Bloom at the premiere of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

‘The Lord of the Rings’ fans can’t get enough of Peter Jackson’s trilogy

More than just a box office success, The Lord of the Rings turned out to be a cultural phenomenon. The movies — along with the emerging Harry Potter series — kicked off a new wave of fantasy blockbusters. It launched many of its stars to big careers thereafter and transformed Jackson from an indie filmmaker to an Oscar-winning director.

Fans just could not get enough of The Lord of the Rings. And Jackson obliged. Despite the theatrical runtimes nearing or exceeding three hours, the director released significantly longer cuts of the films on home video. These extended editions flesh out much of the world of Middle-earth and feature additional character-building moments.

Viggo Mortensen revealed details of an unreleased deleted scene

Among the many subplots of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the forbidden love between Ranger Aragorn (Mortensen) and Elf princess Arwen (Liv Tyler). The bond between these two is a major throughline in all three films. And now Mortensen revealed to NME that one of the couple’s most romantic scenes was never included in the trilogy.

“There was a scene that we shot as a sort of memory flashback. It was from the courtship days when he first met Arwen. And we shot it just before we were taking a break. So I was clean-shaven and prettied up. They’d tried to make me look as young as possible. I had different hair, and I was dressed like an elf.

It was a scene from the book where they’re walking in this flowery meadow. It was a beautiful sequence but obviously, it wasn’t needed for the movie. I’ve never seen it but I enjoyed shooting that scene. It’d be nice to see it actually. It’s not in the extended editions either.”

Some fans might be surprised to learn Jackson still had any unused footage after the extended editions. Those versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy do feature a few glimpses at Arwen and Aragorn’s love story. But seeing a more innocent, less world-weary version of Mortensen’s character certainly would have helped flesh Aragorn out even moreso.

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Could ‘The Lord of the Rings’ release a new cut for the 20th anniversary?

Mortensen’s casual mention of this deleted scene might make some The Lord of the Rings fans wonder whether there’s more where that came from. And if Jackson is sitting on other deleted scenes, perhaps there’s a chance of an even more extended edition of the trilogy.

After all, rumors have swirled for years that Jackson wanted to re-edit The Lord of the Rings into a version that follows a more chronological order. With The Fellowship of the Ring about to hit its 20th anniversary in 2021, perhaps there’s no better time to revisit Middle-earth.

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