For years, there’s been much disappointment among The Lord of the Rings fans that Glorfindel was removed from the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. His role was famously taken over by Arwen instead. When chatting to Philippa Boyens about what The Lord of the Rings movies she’d love to see in the world, Boyens noted that narratively, this change made sense in the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films, but it didn’t mean that she wouldn’t love to tell Glorfindel’s story in a movie. For context, the question posed to Boyens was whether she’d ever consider making a The Lord of the Rings movie about the elves, given that they haven’t fully featured in a movie yet. In addition to Glorfindel, Boyens named Galadriel’s daughter, Celebrían, as The Lord of the Rings elf whose story she’d most like to tell in a movie.
Here’s what Boyens shared when it came to her opinion on the best candidates for an elf-centric The Lord of the Rings movie:
Well, I knew why we swapped out Glorfindel for our women and why we needed to do that because he would’ve just appeared and kind of gone nowhere in the storytelling. But he’s an interesting character.
Oh yes, yes. Celebrían, her story. That would be an interesting story because she’s kind of a mystery; exactly what happened there, right?
Right!
For the curious, Glorfindel has quite a fascinating story in Middle-earth. In The Lord of the Rings’ lore Glorfindel is a powerful elf and a fierce warrior. In the First Age, he was the lord of the house of the Golden Flower in Gondolin. And this is an era that many wish to see explored in film. Glorfindel then dies once while fighting a Balrog but is resurrected by Manwë, as his time in Middle-earth is not yet done. Glorfindel even prophecizes that the Witch-King cannot be killed by a man, which, in fact, holds—and thus sets up Éowyn’s epic takedown of the wraith himself. He spans the ages of Middle-earth and would surely make for an exciting The Lord of the Rings movie adventure.
Celebrían, meanwhile, is a tragic, romantic figure in The Lord of the Rings universe and would make for a lovely movie indeed. Galadriel’s daughter has an epic romance with Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell, and she is even Arwen’s mother. But, alas, Celebrían is captured and tortured by the enemy and is never the same again in body and spirit after that. Eventually, she retreats west to Valinor, leaving her daughter and husband. We’re crying our eyes out just thinking about a Celebrían movie.
Of course, this isn’t to say that a new The Lord of the Rings movie about Glorfindel or Celebrían will happen, but with The Lord of the Rings cinematic world continuing to expand, it’s not out of the question either. We certainly would be incredibly excited if Boyens got the chance to tell either of these stories.