Where was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King filmed?

2003 film by Peter Jackson

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) was filmed in Mount Ruapehu, Queenstown, Matamata, Rangipo Desert, Palatine Chapel in Aachen, Twizel and 1 more place, 7 places named in its Wikipedia article, in New Zealand, Germany. Wikidata itself records the shoot only as New Zealand. A sentence in an article is weaker evidence than a statement, and every claim on this page says which it is.

Part of the Peter Jackson's Middle-earth film series · the Lord of the Rings film series

See them on the map → Wikipedia Source data

Places per Wikipedia's article

The article names 7 places. A sentence in an article is weaker evidence than a Wikidata statement, so these are listed apart, never mixed into the statement list, and the claim links straight to where it came from.

Places whose own article says it was shot there

1 place whose own Wikipedia article names this film as something shot there, where Wikidata records nothing and this film’s own article does not say so either. The weakest evidence on this atlas: no pin on the map, and nothing in the downloads. Each sentence is quoted whole and linked to the article it came from, so it can be judged rather than taken on trust.

• Twizel New Zealand

  “In the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the battle of the Pelennor Fields was filmed near Twizel, as was a scene in The Hobbit trilogy of movies where Bilbo and the Dwarves are chased across the plains by Warg riders.” Wikipedia

Recorded only at country level

Wikidata also records this film as shot in New Zealand, without saying where. Those statements are true but unmappable — a pin in the middle of a country would claim something nobody wrote — so they are listed here instead of guessed at.

Filming locations that are mapped there: New Zealand

Also shot in these places

• Mission: Impossible – Fallout 2018

Frequently asked questions