Where to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is available to stream in US on HBO Max and YouTube TV. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV and Amazon.
As armies gather for a decisive war, a reluctant heir must unite the forces of good while a brave hobbit and his loyal companion undertake a perilous journey into the enemy’s land. Their mission offers the only hope of destroying a powerful ring and saving their world.
Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, John Noble, David Wenham, Miranda Otto, Bernard Hill, John Rhys-Davies
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Trivia & production notes
- The Return of the King contains 1,489 visual effects shots, nearly three times more than the first film in the trilogy.
- During planning for the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the number of digital characters ballooned from 50,000 to 200,000, and planned visual effects shots increased from 60 to 250.
- Shelob's head was scanned by a Canadian company for ten times more detail than Weta Digital had previously been able to capture from any sculpture.
- The Mouth of Sauron's mouth was enlarged by 200 percent for an unsettling visual effect.
- A miniature of Minas Tirith was built at 1:72 scale, standing 7 meters high and 6.5 meters in diameter.
- Peter Jackson found The Return of the King the easiest of the three films to make because it contained the story's climax.
- The Minas Tirith set was constructed from parts of the Helm's Deep set, with the gate from Helm's Deep repurposed as Minas Tirith's second gate.
- John Howe designed Minas Morgul by imagining how Orcs would corrupt a former Gondorian city, drawing inspiration from his experience having a wisdom tooth extracted.
- Shelob's body design was based on a tunnelweb spider, while Peter Jackson's children selected the head design from multiple sculpts.
- The Battle of the Black Gate was filmed at Rangipo Desert, a former minefield in New Zealand, with military guides present to watch for unexploded ordnance.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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