Tom Bombadil Needs To Be In The Warner Bros. Lord Of The Rings Remake
Tom Bombadil is one of J.R.R. Tolkien's most mysterious and fascinating characters, which is why he should be in the Warner Bros. Lord of the Rings remake.
Tom Bombadil is a major player in J.R.R. Tolkien’s first Lord of the Rings book, The Fellowship of the Ring—in fact, without Tom, the four hobbits never would have made it to Bree, and the entire saga would have been cut underwhelmingly short. But Tom never appeared in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the story, and even though he is alive at the time of Rings of Power, he isn’t likely to appear in the Amazon series either. Even though he’s never had a proper introduction in the film world, Tom Bombadil is a fascinating character that adds to the magic and lore of Middle Earth, which is why he needs to be included in the Warner Bros. Lord of the Rings remake.
So who is Tom Bombadil? The character is one of the most mysterious creations to come out of Tolkien’s imagination and not much is known about him, even to the most dedicated Lord of the Rings fans. What we do know is that he is one of the oldest beings on Middle Earth, and though he has incredible powers that are similar to Gandalf and the other Istari, he isn’t a wizard, an elf, a dwarf, or any other race of creature formally introduced in Tolkien’s books.
Tom Bombadil appears only momentarily in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at the very beginning of Frodo’s journey. Just as the four hobbits are leaving the shire, they decide to take a shortcut through the Old Forest to evade the Ring Wraiths that are stalking them, but almost as soon as they’ve entered the forest, they are attacked by a sentient tree who swallows Merry and Pippin into its bark. Tom, who is the master of the forest, effortlessly saves the hobbits and takes them back to his house where they stay for several days and meet his wife, Goldberry, a creature just as enigmatic as her husband.
The time that the hobbits spend with Tom Bombadil is very strange as he is constantly bursting into songs that seem to have some sort of magical effect over the forest. Additionally, Frodo feels compelled to tell Tom about the ring and even hand it over to him, despite Gandalf’s very serious warning not to tell anyone, but Bombadil is completely unaffected by the ring’s powers and is neither tempted by it nor turned invisible when he puts it on his finger. This adds to the mysteriousness of the character since even Middle Earth’s most powerful beings, like Gandalf and Saruman, were influenced by the ring.
In addition to being one of The Lord of the Ring’s most elusive characters, Tom Bombadil is also one of Tolkien’s oldest creations. Long before Tolkien ever wrote any of his books, he wrote “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil” poems, which were inspired by his children’s Dutch doll. However, there is very little information known about Tom and how he came to be the master of the Old Forest near the Shire.
In a way, Tom Bombadil’s obscurity makes him one of the most fascinating characters in all of Middle Earth lore. Still, it makes sense why Jackson decided to leave him out of the Lord of the Rings movies. While Jackson has been praised for creating a trilogy true to the original books, the director’s cut for Fellowship of the Ring was three and a half hours, and though that seems like it might become a standard run time for theatrical releases now, it was extremely long for the early 2000s.
Obviously, some stuff had to be cut, and other plot points had to be condensed in order to turn the dense Lord of the Rings books into movies. Jackson was correct when he said that Tom Bombadil didn’t move the plot forward, and nixing the Old Forest scenes and having the Ring Wraith chase the hobbits onto the raft to Bree (instead of into the forest) not only cut out a full chapter of unnecessary story but also kept the movie tighter with a more cohesive tone.
Still, while cutting Tom Bombadil out of Jackson’s adaptations made sense, Warner Bros. now has an opportunity to do something different. No one wants a complete remake of The Lord of the Rings franchise; Jackson’s moves were too good and hold up too well for them to be completely tossed aside. That means that (if Warner Bros. doesn’t want the new movies to fail) the studio will need to do something different—like introducing and breathing new life into mysterious and fascinating characters like Tom Bombadil.
