LOTR: How Building Edoras for REAL is a Testament to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy's Greatness!

The filming location for Edoras in Lord of the Rings exemplified the extensive effort put into the trilogy. It took eight months to construct, yet only eight days to shoot there. Situated on Mount Sunday in New Zealand, the set offered stunning views amidst surrounding mountains. The actors found the experience awe-inspiring, enhancing their performances and adding depth to the film. The tangible setting provided a more immersive experience compared to working with a blue screen backdrop.

[@purefoldnz3070]

Peter wasnt just building a set but an entire tourism industry.

[@themadhanna]

Eowyn is so pretty when she's not trying to feed you her stew!

[@aldandurp.8398]

She is also kinda cute when she does (just not the stew)

[@d.martinez9468]

I always thought Arwen (liv) was the prettier character (obviously cause elven woman vs human) but I thought of tge two actresses Eowyn was the prettier one. (Sorry I can’t remember her name and I don’t feel like using my super computer in my hand to look it up)

[@kaihiggins725]

@@d.martinez9468Liv Tyler daughter of Steven Tyler from Aerosmith

[@ultraviolet540]

Éowyn is best girl

[@gohawks3571]

​@@ultraviolet540Agreed; she's a super hero of her own right! I love Arwen too, but Eowyn is a woman of action. "I am not man!"

[@fullmetalrants843]

Another reason the LOTR films still stand up and sometimes surpass new films. Because they used as little cgi as possible.

[@omega13whitelucario95]

They utilize a good balance of it and practical effects which Sadly a lot of stuff is missing

[@themadhanna]

"Sometimes" surpass? I can't think of any film, new or old, that is better than any one of the three Lord of the Rings films (let alone the entire trilogy) by Peter Jackson.

[@jaysinjaymesbrown7819]

​@@themadhannabeat me to it.

[@Bleiser3]

False. Not "sometimes" but always.

[@DECODEDVFX]

*They used CGI when it made sense.

[@justaperson9155]

Eight months to build for only 8 days shooting 💀 That's insane but worth it.

[@josh3342]

Fun fact:when the flag got ripped from the flagstaff in the movie:it actually got ripped off. They didn’t intend for that to happen, it’s just so goddamn windy up there!

[@themadhanna]

That IS a fun fact... diD YoU kNoW tHaT viGgO AcTualLy BrOke HIs tOe?!?!

[@josh3342]

@@themadhanna is there a reason you decided to be a troll?

[@themadhanna]

@@josh3342 I wasn't trolling. I was saying that the fact you shared was indeed a fun fact, as opposed to the not-so-fun-fact of Aragorn's toe.

[@themadhanna]

@@josh3342 but also, if I was a troll, I wouldn't be anywhere near Edoras... It's too exposed to the sunlight and is full of troll-enemies.

[@josh3342]

@@themadhanna got it. The ‘tExT lIkE ThIs’ is usually reserved for sarcasm. I assumed you said it as a way of saying ‘who cares’

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

The wind was fierce. Jackson lost a pair of glasses while scouting the site. The wind ripped them right off his face.

[@Pyriold]

I was there. It is really epic, and you can even see the place where they put helms deep from up there in the distance. It all is a natural preserve so they had to mark every plant that they removed and put it back afterwards. Now, it's just pristine nature.

[@Warmaka]

Edoras should be rebuilt for real.

[@Mr.Paticles]

While that is a good idea. It will destroy the landscape. Tourism destroys Nature.

[@themadhanna]

If we all stop giving our money to paedophiles through "tax," we could use all that extra money to buy the materials and tools to build it ourselves!

[@The_Devil_Himself]

If I remember from the behind the scenes correctly, the New Zealand government allowed them to build the Edoras set in a national park on condition that they removed everything afterwards.

[@californiadovah7786]

I agree

[@fullmetalrants843]

They should have left it up like the Shire.

[@ZZubZZero]

It's a protected nature area so they couldn't

[@tylerbarnes209]

No thanks. The area is beautiful without more tourists flooding the place.

[@fullmetalrants843]

@tylerbarnes209 it probably is. So you don't want your countrymen to make a living off tourism? Seems selfish to me. I've seen ads for New Zealand so your government definitely wants tourism.

[@tylerbarnes209]

@@fullmetalrants843 New Zealand has plenty of tourist hotspots with plenty of tourists. The area this shire is in a protected area and is far more beautiful than having some fake village full of tourists. Want to visit the spot, do the hard yards and get some hiking boots and hike in

[@PoRouS22]

We were there last december and we were almost alone there. And there is an excellent toilet xD

[@gohawks3571]

I just realized yesterday (watching the Two Towers) that Theodrid's bedroom floor also had the looping design in it! I really think I love all the Edoras stuff the best; it's so beautiful. Everything is layered and like it has age, in everything they did in the whole movie. But the horse people are just so cool😎🐎

[@lucasstchur5441]

Fun fact, the Amazon series crew weeps at night wishing they were this dedicated

[@kiowafourty964]

And this gave birth to Whiterun.

[@mickwehrman9810]

Me to myself: do not leave this video to buy plane tickets, just keep scrolling.

[@DutchAver]

Or do. I've been there. The view is absolutely breathtaking.

[@EirikBull]

I've been to the top of Mount Sunday during a three week New Zealand trip. The wind up there was intense!

[@esegall91]

Sadly, no one makes movies like this anymore. Even the Hobbit movies which were a,axing relied on too much CG.

[@l.c.6831]

Amazing! I've always wondered if it was CGI or real... but always guessed was the first, cause seemed unrealistic to think they'd built everything for the movie... but turns out it's the case! ❤️👏👏

[@amandabrieno7805]

The actors in this movie made it so fun to watch

[@SpeedBoost]

It's crazy how the exact same crew, creative team and director, completely flipped their opinions by the time it came for them to make The Hobbit films! As the BTS of The Lord of the Rings is filled with beautiful set construction, locations being scouted and repurposed, and everyone being in awe of each new set, ... then 90% of The Hobbit BTS is all Blue or Green Screens with each actor performing independently from one another and being composited in to scenes together. It's hard to believe that all six films were made by the same people, as it's like they forgot how to make a movie when they started making The Hobbit trilogy.

[@HashSlingingSlasher123]

Agree 100%! However, to be fair, with LOTR, they had several years of preproduction and planning before they rolled the camera. With the Hobbit, with Peter being put in the director’s chair last minute, they only had months before shooting began, and they had to maintain a tight schedule with deadlines for the theater releases and it was easier to rely more on computer generated effects and fix everything in post production, which is very unfortunate

[@klaus1756]

The hobbit had 0 days of preparation, peter jackson accepting the project at the last minute, not like LOTR first movies wich had more than 6 months of pre work

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

One problem was that The Hobbit was filmed in 3D. That means that they could not use forced perspective.

[@anhnhvn]

Not the same crew.

[@DECODEDVFX]

Peter Jackson only had about six months of pre-production/writing time. It's honestly a bit of a miracle that he managed to make a watchable movie at all. Especially as one of the studios involved forced him to reuse most of the pre-production work done for Del Toro's version. The Hobbit and LOTR were made by New Line, but the rights to adapt the books were held by United Artists (a subsidiary of MGM). MGM was facing bankruptcy at the time, and the Hobbit was one of the few franchises they had (other than James Bond). So they tried to milk it for all it was worth. When they found out Jackson was shooting a lot of additional content, they forced him to stretch out the script to make an extra movie, but with no time or budget to do it properly. The second and third hobbit movies are actually just the extended version of one movie with a bunch of cheap filler added.

[@pablomansini6449]

The making of LOTR is a movie in itself, unbelievable effort

[@Abhay0505]

Amazing

[@Fitzpatrick65]

I just found out that, Warner Bros. will release a new Lord of the Rings Movie ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ in 2026, with Peter Jackson producing and Andy Serkis directing. I absolutely love LOTR films, I grew up on J. R. R. Tolkien books and watched The Return Of The King (1980), The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

[@MiddleEarthUpdates]

That’s true! We will release a video about that tomorrow going into what to expect! :)

[@Fitzpatrick65]

@@MiddleEarthUpdates Sweet

[@asusantec1328]

Eowyn was my childhood crush 🥺

[@cassieo]

It’s beautiful out there, so pristine and remote. You can hike to it, then up on it to the isolated weather station. There is no close parking, it’s protected. You gotta be dedicated to get out there.

[@MiddleEarthUpdates]

Cool! Have you been there personally?

[@helentaylor4886]

This is why Peter Jackson is a great director,2024 and still my favourite movie of all time ❤❤❤

[@ThranduilBricks]

First like! Love your channel!

[@MiddleEarthUpdates]

Thank you! You can also expect both some Thranduil and LotR-LEGO content in the future! :)

[@jacobshelton5129]

And that city inspired the design of white rum from Skyrim so whenever I’m in white run I get the urge to put on the original trilogy

[@elias-1514]

I haven't read the books, but I always thought that the town looked way to small for the King of Rohan.

[@JudgeEomer]

The Rohirrim were a very dispersed people who lived all over the plains of Rohan. If we follow the Anglo-Saxon analogy this is a pretty realistic size for a king's hall and burh.

[@spacecentergames]

It was cool, but I felt they could have CGd in more buildings. It always looks too sparse, especially when compared with other cities in the trilogy.

[@aporia_ygo]

Random hill in NZ -> Edoras -> Whiterun

[@miguellamas6562]

I now understand why they made the capital of Rohan as small as hobbiton, compared to the books

[@AletheaKaminsky-cn7jo]

❤

[@kratosGOW]

All these cool practical effects, makeup, costumes, sets… and then Ian McKellen had to come back for The Hobbit with no one beside him in front of green screens. 😢

[@redbluebae4397]

Wish they kept this and the house from Practical Magic

[@MitcHELL2885]

Better performance when your not surrounded by a blue screen you say

[@lillired857]

Tourist board should have intervened 😂

[@davidderricott3968]

Now that’s worldBUILDING

[@devilpupbear09]

Edoras wasn't CGI?! 😳

[@kaihiggins725]

Why don’t they build the city for real and have it as a hotel town sort of thing? It would make a fortune because I’d never leave the place

[@debrickashaw9387]

so sad they had to tear it down. ANd i bet the new zeeland government regretted that decision but they had no idea how big these movies would be

[@LairdErnst]

Is it still there or did they have to tear it down?

[@JaneNewAuthor]

They used it for 8 days, then dismantled it and even put the original plants back.

[@Absolutely_Nobody]

This sudden influx of LOTR shorts has got to be a psyop ad campaign after the new movie was announced.

[@kojinaoftheinvertedeye810]

I know it's a national park buuuuut... I'D KILL FOR EDORAS!!!!!

[@shara1979]

In the future, historians will find the set, & think there was a group of primitive ppl that existed during technology age, lol

[@shara1979]

They'll make assumptions & lore, like these ppl held out against the norm.... And Hobbit bills, I can only imagine what they'll assume

[@neoneve123]

They should of left it itd if bed a massive tourist attraction and a lical claim to faim

[@tombkingsethbattlechannel9419]

And now everything is CGI in front of a greenscreen.

[@amandabrieno7805]

Except for the bad guys

[@enyaliosares4301]

Shame this philosophy wasn’t applied to the hobbit trilogy

[@mohammadbahari1204]

Whiterun

[@bintube5269]

So what happens if someone commits a crime while over there 🤪

[@felipemazza4587]

There is no match to how epic this trilogy was and forever will be

[@Kimberly-hb1om]

❤