One of the producers of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings is reported to have said Jackson should kill off at least one of the four main Hobbit characters. This didn't happen, but Dominic Monaghan, who plays Merry, believes it would have been his character who was whacked because the other three--Frodo, Sam, and Pippin--were too important to the story.

　　"It's a good job that didn't happen, because it would have been me," he said with a laugh in an interview with IGN. "It definitely would have. There's no way they are killing Frodo and Sam, and the only ones that would be left would be Merry and Pippin. They wouldn't kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf."

　　With all of that in mind, Monaghan said he believes "it would have definitely been" Merry that got killed. Thankfully, director Peter Jackson wouldn't budge on this request.

　　"I think Pete quite rightly was like, 'This is a luminary piece of written work, and we need to stick close to the text.' So, he stuck by his guns," he said. "Yeah, I'm thankful that didn't happen."

　　The full interview at IGN features lots of interesting insight on The Lord of the Rings and the new podcast, Friendship Onion, which Monaghan and Pippin actor Billy Boyd host together.

　　The Fellowship of the Ring celebrates its 20th anniversary this year after its theatrical debut in December 2001. The franchise remains popular, with Amazon currently filming a big-budget Lord of the Rings TV show in New Zealand, and a new animated movie is in production.

　　Outside of film and TV, Daedalic is making a Lord of the Rings game focused on Gollum, while Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford recently revealed that he pitched Lord of the Rings video games before going on to make Borderlands.

　　In other news, a Brazilian tattoo artist cut off his nose and split his tongue to look more like an orc from The Lord of the Rings.