Adaptations
Legolas was voiced by Anthony Daniels in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings. In the film, he takes Glorfindel's place in the "Flight to the Ford" sequence; he meets Aragorn and the hobbits on their way to Rivendell, and sets Frodo on his horse before he is chased by the Nazgûl to the ford of Bruinen. Here, he answers to Elrond and is not explicitly identified as a Wood-elf.
Legolas is absent from the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King, but was voiced by David Collings in the 1981 BBC Radio 4 adaptation. In the 1993 Finnish miniseries Hobitit he was portrayed by Ville Virtanen.
In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001–2003), Legolas was portrayed by Orlando Bloom. He is presented as an unstoppable fighter, performing various feats or stunts in battle scenes; in the book Legolas' exploits in battle are not presented in great detail. The character's relationship with Gimli is shown to have moved from brief hostility as seen in The Fellowship of the Ring to respect and friendship in The Two Towers. This is first seen when Éomer makes a remark towards Gimli that he wished to cut off the dwarf's head "if it but stood a little higher off the ground". Legolas drew an arrow on Éomer immediately afterwards, claiming, "You would die before your stroke fell." The two also engage in a drinking contest which Gimli loses due to Legolas' much higher metabolism which gives him a far greater resistance to the effects of alcohol. During the battle of Helm's Deep, the two engage in a contest to see who can slay the most enemies, as they do in the novel, though the films depict Legolas constantly being at least one kill ahead of Gimli. In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Legolas and Gimli continue their friendly competition that started in The Two Towers, which usually (and comically) leaves Gimli on the losing side. Due to technical mishaps involving Bloom's contact lenses, in the films Legolas' eye colour sometimes changes between brown, purple, and blue (In the Extended Edition of the movie, on the director's commentary, Peter Jackson admitted that they did, indeed, forget to put Bloom's contacts in several times).
Merchandise for the live-action film trilogy includes two non-canonical figures for the character's age. In one of the official film guidebooks, a birthdate for Legolas is set to 87 of the Third Age. This would make him 2931 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. Coincidentally or not, the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings give Aragorn's year of birth as T.A. 2931. Another invented figure appears in Top Trumps cards for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, with the card for Legolas stating his age at 7000, making him older than Elrond. Bloom will reprise his role of Legolas in Jackson's upcoming film adaptation of The Hobbit (2012-2013).
In the West End musical, The Lord of the Rings: The Musical, Legolas was portrayed by Michael Rouse.
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