Main Characters of The Lord of the Rings Series

The Lord of the Rings is one of the world's most popular and well-known high fantasy series, one that has and always will be one of the greatest series in its' genre for all of time. Over the course of the series several characters are introduced, here are the details about the main characters. In The Lord of the Rings Frodo Baggins, Bilbo Baggin's "nephew," is tasked with casting the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor.

His best friend Samwise Gamgee is there with him every step of the way, carrying and encouraging the both of them when Frodo feels that he cannot go any further. Samwise Gamgee is in some ways more of the hero than Frodo himself. He goes to great lengths to protect Frodo, and his love and loyalty is nearly incomparable to any other character in the saga. He is even willing to set aside his obvious dislike and distrust of Gollum in order that he and Frodo may complete their quest. Meriadoc Brandybuck, also known as Merry, is regarded as one of the more perceptive characters in The Lord of the Rings. He is one of Frodo's closest friends and a relative as well.

Peregrin Took, also called Pippin, is one of the youngest characters in the series. He is also one of the more resourceful members of the fellowship, displaying surprising levels of bravery as a soldier in the Army of the West. Gandalf the Grey is a mighty wizard. His power is one that is subtle, nearly unrecognizable beneath his plain robes of grey as he travels leaning on his gnarled staff. After his two day and two night battle with the terrible Balrog where he met his end, Gandalf was sent back stronger and more powerful as Gandalf the White.

Aragorn was known as Strider in the beginning of the journey, but later went by his true name when the joined the fellowship. Aragorn is soon revealed to be the next King of Arnor. He is a rather grim character, hardly ever showing emotion except in brief, unexpected moments. Legolas is an Elf hailing from the Woodland Realm; he also serves as the Fellowship's archer, and as leader after Gandalf's "demise." As an elf, he has several gifts and advantages that other members of the fellowship do not such as a degree of immunity from the effects of the elements and excellent eyes and ears.

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5 Of the Best Movie Cameo Characters

Great movies need great characters but really great movies often end up with so many excellent characters that there isn't enough time to cram them all in. This ends up making the character who is only seen briefly seem even cooler than they are. Case in point.

Boba Fett:

Most movie goers got their first sight of Boba Fett when the Empire Strikes Back hit the cinemas. The movie was crammed full of fantastic characters including Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and the Emperor to name a few. Boba Fett plays a crucial but short role in the movie. He is employed by Vader to track Han Solo for the Empire. The appeal of Boba Fett comes down to a couple of things. He looks incredibly cool, he doesn't say much and he has an air of mystery about him. It helps that he has one of the coolest spaceships ever seen too. Since then his popularity ensured that he featured in Attack of the Clones, the Clone Wars cartoon and many extended universe books.

Ravage:

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen there are a lot of fan favourite Transformers added to the mix. One such is Ravage who is first seen been blasted onto Earth by Soundwave. No one seemed to notice how cool that and many other scenes in the film are and instead choose to focus on the twins instead. Ravage is a big robot cat with big guns on his back. What's not to like. He is later seen in the movie having an almighty fight with Bumblebee who sadly rips him apart.

Collosus:

The X-Men suffers from the too many great characters problems. In X2 there are a fair few more mutants added to the mix and we get a tantalising glimpse of Piotr Nicolivitch AKA Collosus. Collosus is an X-Man whos skin can turn into metal. He offers to help Wolverine in fighting the bad guys off. What does Logan do, tells him to take his help and shove it doing us out of an awesome action scene in the process.

Sauron:

Since Sauron in the Lord of the Rings is the main bad guy it's pretty odd that we only see him during the first ten minutes of the Fellowship of the Ring. When we do see him he's awesome, cutting through swathes of soldiers like a deranged Darth Vader. Sauron is such a threat to the rest of the characters in the Lord of the Rings that he can't be let near them.

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Are There Too Many Supporting Characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Next summer The Avengers will unite for the first time on screen. Yes that's right, next year we will see Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America assemble attempt to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. To get this far, it has taken five films that each intertwine with each other in order to set up this huge superhero team up. Whilst films in the Marvel cinematic universe are all connected, they are also their own franchises that contain other important supporting characters. With the Avengers fast approaching, are major supporting characters such as War Machine, Bucky and Odin likely to get bumped for the superhero team-up film?

Recent reports suggest a host of supporting characters such as James Rhodes/ War Machine from Iron Man and Bucky Barnes from Captain America: The First Avenger will not be appearing in the Avengers flick. This is understandable from Marvel's point of view, as it would save them money and prevents the film from overcrowding, but from a narrative point of view, are there too many loose ties to deal with that require these supporting characters in some capacity?

My first point is with Thor. When we last saw the Odinson, he was stranded in Asgard after destroying the Bifrost Bridge. (The bridge that connects the nine realms) Whilst his return to Earth is likely to be caused by the 'secret paths' Loki hinted at, how is the Avengers film really going to deal with this without using the likes of Heimdall, Odin and Jane Foster. Using Idris Elba in the film wouldn't seem too excessive as his appearance could be kept to a bare cameo, but stars such as Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman, who haven't yet confirmed if they're on board, would be extremely expensive to have for bare cameos, and would likely need to have some involvement in the story, considering the main villain is likely to be Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

The same goes for the supporting characters in the Iron Man franchise. Don Cheadle recently confirmed that unless he's recast, he definitely would not be in the Avengers as War Machine. This is understandable considering the team will already have Iron Man, but if the crisis in the film that brings the group together is truly Earth threatening, wouldn't Nick Fury want another armoured battle suit at his disposal? This is something I hope Josh Whedon acknowledges in the film and that he makes a reasonable excuse for Rhode's absence. Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts is fortunately unnecessary in the film, so at least her absence is taken care of.

The absence of Captain America's supporting characters in the Avengers is easier to explain due to The First Avenger being a period movie. Some key characters such as Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) will at least need referencing in the film, perhaps in flashback sequences in order to emphasize how Steve Rogers has become a man out of time. If the Avengers film were to set up storylines for future solo character adventures, Bucky Barnes could be featured as The Winter Soldier.

Lastly is The Incredible Hulk. Personally this is the hardest film to incorporate into the Avengers movie due to it being released back in 2008 with no further sequels and a recast in lead actor from Ed Norton to Mark Ruffalo. When we last saw Bruce Banner he was hiding out in British Columbia where we saw hints that either he had become able to control the monster within, or it was controlling him. Whilst this will surely be dealt with in the Avengers, the after credit scene with Tony Stark and General Ross hinted that Ross was somehow involved in the set up of the Avengers team. Will this be addressed in the film? I doubt it as I'm beginning to feel Marvel is slowly removing The Incredible Hulk from their continuity.

Hopefully the absence of any important supporting characters will be addressed intelligently, as this is where Marvel's connected universe will really begin to pay off. For instant I don't want to see Thor return to Earth with no mention of Jane Foster, nor do I want Tony Stark in combat without acknowledging War Machine's absence. Hopefully Josh Whedon will pay attention to detail and Marvel will surely pull of something phenomenal that sets new standards for comic book movies.

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DC Characters We Will Never See As Movies

The summer comic book movie season started off with a hammering bang. Thor was superb, offering cinema audiences a slightly different superhero movie to what they're used too, but still managing to be dramatic, compelling and fun. X-Men: First Class was dramatic, intelligent, and filled with youthful energy. The pressure was on for DC's Martin Campbell's directed Green Lantern, and did it deliver? No. The movie was universally panned by critics and now faces a struggle to avoid becoming a box office disaster. With Warner Bros putting such high hopes on Green Lantern for it to instantly fail, the ramifications will undoubtedly hault future DC movies for B-List characters. But which ones?

The Flash

The adventures of DC's Scarlett Speedster would undoubtedly have been DC's next superhero film in line. With a huge comic book fan base, The Flash could have easily translated well to the big screen. Whether the film followed the origin of the always late Barry Allen, or the story of his nephew Wally West, it was a certainty that the film would be announced after the success of Green Lantern. With Hal Jordan not causing much of a storm at the box office, the film starring the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong struggling will undoubtedly have Warner Bros pushing the panic button on their smaller franchises, meaning we probably won't see a Flash movie any time soon. It is however the most likely character to avoid the fall out of the Green Lantern movie.

Wonder Woman

This will undoubtedly be the certain casualty of the fall out of Green Lantern's failure. With Joss Whedon the only likely candidate to successfully helm the Wonder Woman film and get results busy on Avengers business, the Amazon Princess will likely stay in development hell for the mean time. If DC don't even have the courage to green light the Wonder Woman TV series, a film version is now certainly looking like it won't happen.

Aquaman

Lampooned by comic book fans as the 'useless' hero who talks to sea animals, the cinematic potential for Aquaman likes much deeper. Aquaman could have been an underwater epic, to rival the likes of Avatar. The story could have followed a young Arthur Curry as his human father raised him in the under water city of Atlantis, where Curry develops healing powers along with other powers suited to his aquatic surroundings. What also makes this film standout is that of all the superhero movies getting the 3-D treatment, this was probably the film that could have benefited from it most. If Green Lantern can't strike cinematic gold, there's no chance of seeing Aquaman on cinema screens, unless a director such as James Cameron or Steven Spielberg gets behind it.

So these are the main DC films that will probably never see the light of day. There are tons of other DC properties that could have benefited from films, such as Green Arrow, Black Canary, Atom and Hawkman, but these certainly won't be made if the big three I mentioned can't escape development hell. Also to take into account, is that Warner Bros are behind the upcoming DC comics reboot, as they wish to start turning a profit on comics books, meaning money saving now seems to be on their agenda.

They do certainly not seem like the type of company to give us a Martian Manhunter film anyway.

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