Adaptations
In most film and radio adaptations of the story, Bombadil is notable by his absence (an exception is the Mind's Eye recordings). Both Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson stated that the reason the character was omitted from their films was because, in their view, he does little to advance the story, and would make their films unnecessarily long. Christopher Lee concurred, stating the scenes were left out to make time for showing Saruman's capture of Gandalf. Some of Bombadil's dialogue, as well as the scene in which the hobbits meet Old Man Willow, are transferred into scenes which Merry and Pippin share with Treebeard in Jackson's adaptation, included in the extended edition DVD.
Although Tom Bombadil was not portrayed in Peter Jackson's film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, a Tom Bombadil card exists in The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game by Decipher, Inc. (part of the trilogy's merchandise). The model portraying Bombadil on this card is Harry Wellerchew.
Bombadil has appeared in a number of other adaptations, including the Mind's Eye radio adaptation. He was played by Norman Shelley in the 1955–6 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. He was portrayed by Esko Hukkanen in the 1993 Finnish miniseries Hobitit.
Although the character does not actually appear in the musical adaptation, towards the end of the show Gandalf explains to Frodo that on his journey back to the Shire he will spend some time in Bombadil's company.
Tom Bombadil is an NPC in the MMORPG game The Lord of the Rings Online. He serves as a main character in Book 1 of the epic quests. Tom Bombadil makes an appearance in EA Games' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II as a summonable hero for the forces of light (except the dwarves). Tom is a usable model in The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game produced by Games Workshop. In this, he is invincible, in that he can never be harmed in any way, but neither can he cause harm to any of his opponents. He can only be played in the Old Forest, as in keeping with his story.
Bombadil is featured in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (video game).
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