‘I was wrong’: Lord of the Rings’ most famous line is a mistake!

We are in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of Peter Jackson’s famous trilogy, adapted from the work of JRR Tolkien. Frodo and his companions are about to leave Moria, but are pursued by the Balrog, a powerful adversary that Gandalf decides to face alone to allow his friends to escape.

In a legendary scene that can easily be considered the most powerful in the feature film, the magician raises his staff, confronts the monster of shadow and fire and declares with authority: “You will not pass!”

But those four little words actually hide the error!

“You can’t pass!”

Translated into French by the phrase “You will not pass!”This line, spoken by Ian McKellen in Peter Jackson’s adaptation, does not exactly match the formula used by Gandalf in Tolkien’s writings. In the original novel, the witch actually calls out: “You can’t pass!” (which could not be translated: “You can’t pass!”)

Does this lexical modification correspond to a conscious decision by Peter Jackson to deliberately change the wording of the book? Or is it just a bug?

According to Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the trilogy, it was he who made the mistake while filming the scene.

“For the geeks and hobbits among you, Tolkien didn’t write ‘You shall not pass’ but ‘You may not pass'”He admitted in 2019, On the set of The Graham Norton Show.

“I was wrong and I can’t really fix it now.”

What would Tolkien think of this minor transformation? As he proved in the 1950s when he reacted to the first script of The Lord of the Rings, the eminent British writer was in any case attached to the smallest details.

Do you think this little mistake by Ian McKellen changes the nature of the famous line?

(Re)discover all the hidden details of the movie…