We used to get a lot of these are the kind of spy reports that really get the rumour mill going. It’s always fun to speculate on what might have been…..Bear in mind that these films are made with dozens of possibilities that are filmed, developed and discarded before the final cut. We KNOW Arwen started out at Helm’s Deep….but didn’t stay in the final theatrical cut. But…will she reappear in the DVD? I don’t think so myself – it seems like an idea that the filmmakers toyed with and then decided, once they saw the rushes and did some of the first edits, that it really didn’t work with the direction they wanted to take the characters. However, here’s some evidence about some of the versions of Arwen’s role that they played with in the beginning.
Ithil Draug wrote in: “One of my friend’s cousins actually helped work on Lord of the Rings and when I saw the report on the possibility of Arwen at Helm’s Deep, I told him about this and told him to ask his cousin. About a week later he told me that his cousin said Arwen was indeed at the Battle of Hornburg. Arwen was supposed to have run away with Asfaloth from the Elves going to the Havens and joined the Rohirrim riders with Gandalf. He further went on to report that New Line was going to have a scene with her riding down the hill and talk[ing] to Aragorn saying something about her “choice” or “I am with you.” New Line [or Peter Jackson, perhaps – Tehanu] cut this scene out and decided to put her scene in the background in order to make it look like many riders charging down the hill.
She may be clearly visible or say the lines she says in the special edition DVD or she may have a large role to play in RotK(the battle and the mortality stuff) but don’t quote me on this. My friend’s cousin is a reliable source but my friend says he isn’t positive about her appearing in the special edidtion or in battle scenes in RotK but at one time Arwen did have some lines and is at Helm’s Deep so my friend says.”
