Originally, the elf Arwen was supposed to play an important role in the Battle of Helm’s Deep in “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” However, in the end, she became a victim of the editing process. Nevertheless, 2 seconds with her made it into the final film.
Peter Jackson initially planned for the elf Arwen, played by Liv Tyler, to have a significant role in the Battle of Helm’s Deep.
There were supposed to be fight scenes with her and Aragorn, where the two fought off the enemies together.
Here you can see a German trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers:
But then the director changed his mind. The character was cut out of the battle scenes. However, if you look very closely, you can find Arwen for a brief moment in the final film.
The TikToker donmarshall72, who regularly shares background information and facts about The Lord of the Rings on his channel, showed in one of his clips the moment when you can spot the elf during the battle.
Here you can watch his TikTok video about it:
In the scene, you can see how the group of protagonists runs into the courtyard of the fortress. As the camera pans, you suddenly spot another figure in a rust-colored robe inside the walls, up on the right: Arwen. She is running up the stairs, armed with a sword in hand and arrows on her back.
You can read more about The Lord of the Rings here with our colleagues from Filmstarts: “That’s not why I became an actor”: Why the “Hobbit” shoot was pure torture for Gandalf actor Ian McKellen
Why was Arwen removed? In the end, Peter Jackson decided against Arwen’s appearance in the Battle of Helm’s Deep. It was supposedly too complicated to explain why the elf suddenly appears in the battle, and they wanted to save runtime.
Additionally, this stayed truer to the source material, where Arwen was also not involved in the fights.
So the team ultimately removed the elf from the shots. However, there is behind-the-scenes material where you can see Arwen in her rust-colored battle outfit.
