The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Christopher Lee (Saruman) was an avid J.R.R. Tolkien fan and read "The Lord of the Rings" once a year, from its publication in 1954 until his death in 2015. He was also the only member of the cast and crew who had met Tolkien. According to Sir Peter Jackson in The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee (2024), Lee wanted to play Gandalf in the movie, but Jackson believed he was better suited to playing Saruman.

Many viewers spotted a car in the background of the theatrical version when Sam says that he is now the furthest he has ever been from home. In a 1 December 2003 Newsweek article, director Peter Jackson confirmed this, and revealed the car had been removed digitally for the DVD release. Jackson says: "We actually didn't know about the car until we were cutting the movie. The smoke and dust wasn't so bad because there was already lots of it around, but the bloody windshield was reflecting the sun back into the camera lens. So we erased it for the DVD. I think some people were upset because they tried to show it to their friends and it was gone." (The infamous car can be seen on the "Academy DVD" which was created for the Oscar jurors and leaked on the Internet. Also, the unaltered shot with the car appearing in it is contained in the bonus material of the SEE DVD - the feature about the film score.)

After the end credits, the DVD and Blu Ray editions of the extended cut feature a list of "Lord of the Rings fan-club members" who contributed financially to the project in exchange for a credit. This additional credit sequence lasts 20 minutes.

The opening and closing New Line Cinema logos are both plastered in the 2011 Blu-ray release of the Extended Edition with the 2003 variant that features the TimeWarner byline instead of AOL Time Warner.