Lord of the Rings' Elijah Wood shares his personal journey in Frodo's "emotional" goodbye in The Return of the King

Popverse's top stories of the day

• Netflix's One Piece has chosen the anime's first great arc as the climax for season 2
• Popverse convention panel archive: Watch panels from NYCC, MCM, C2E2, ECCC, and more on-demand!
• Our Flag Means Death's Kristian Nairn says season 3 is "down to the fans," and that "they're doing exactly the right thing"

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy is filled with countless memorable scenes. Some will leave you on the edge of your seat with excitement, while others will leave you in tears. For example, it’s hard to forget Frodo’s goodbye scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Saying goodbye to Middle-earth couldn’t have been easy, especially since the scene served as a (temporary) coda to the franchise.

Elijah Wood recently appeared at a Lord of the Rings reunion panel at Liverpool Comic Con 2024, where he spoke about filming the pivotal scene.

“I remember filming that little bit of essentially finishing his part, and it was the last shot I filmed in the entire series. We would go back every year for additional filming for each film for pickups, but that was the last bit I ever shot. It was really emotional because it was so symbolic of Frodo and handing that [the Red Book] over to Sam. The legacy of it, essentially, it’s your adventure to take now, it’s your story to write. All of the weight of that, and it was deeply emotional.”

If that scene had you tearing up, you weren’t the only one. According to Wood, everyone on set was getting emotional.

“Peter [Jackson], Fran [Walsh], and Philippa [Boyens] sat by the monitor, all of them crying. It certainly informed the performance for me. Obviously, it’s an emotional moment for Frodo, but in a different way, not in an overt way. It was heavy.”

According to Wood, Jackson had no intention of returning to Middle-earth for more projects, so he had viewed this scene as a goodbye.

“The juxtaposition of the end of Frodo’s journey to Peter’s journey going forward. I don’t think he quite knew in that moment that he would be carrying on, certainly not to Middle-earth again, and taking on the Hobbit.”

That’s not the only Middle-earth project Peter Jackson is developing. Jackson is developing the upcoming film The Hunt for Gollum, which is expected to hit theaters in 2026. But that’s the way it is with goodbyes. Sometimes they’re forever, and sometimes they’re not. Either way, Elijiah Wood knocked Frodo’s goodbye out of the park.

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you from a Lord of the Rings reading guide, a Lord of the Rings watch guide, details on the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, a full the Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch, how the OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat, and the true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.