Did you know that the original Azog in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was going to be practical effects? He was originally played by stunt actor and body builder Conan Stevens in prosthetics and a badass costume. Below is the story of the original Azog that could have been:
This is the very first prosthetic version of Azog. This didn’t get Peter Jackson’s approval so they tried again.
This is the second version, no approval this time either so they tried again.
This may be the third version or even further. Notice the metal in the face in this one. This didn’t get the approval so now they wanted to try something else.
Eventually they made the decision to go with a full CGI Azog and cast Manu Bennet. You can see / read more on imgur.
The original Azog costume design (Conan Stevens in prosthetics) does make a 5 second appearance in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, repurposed as “Keeper of the Dungeons”. A glimpse of what could have been, hadn’t they completely painted him over with a digital character.
So which Azog do you prefer? The original practical effect design or the full CGI version? Let us know in the comments!
That’s not the original Azog, it’s the original Bolg — Stevens is even credited as Bolg in An Unexpected Journey; there is a scene of Dwalin striking him during the Moria battle flashback. The implications of his design make the change even more tragic. Notice the bear pelts and claws on Bolg’s armor, as well as the zombie-like appearance. Now consider the Battle of Five Armies footage of the dungeon keeper, proving he was filmed at Dol Guldur (set photos corroborate this). And as I mentioned, we had seen Dwalin dealing him a blow in the flashback (before his head was patched together with iron). The logical conclusion, since he’s hanging out with The Necromancer, is that he’s a literal undead orc in his original iteration. In the book, Bolg is the main chieftain during the BoFA, and Beorn is the one to kill him. Beorn’s chains and hatred for the orcs is set up in DoS — and an aborted Lego set at the time depicted Beorn and Bolg at Dol Guldur.
In other words, Conan Stevens’ original Bolg seems to have been slain by Dwalin (or sometime in between then and the time of the Hobbit), was brought back from the dead by Sauron, AKA the Necromancer, put in charge of Dol Guldur, where he captured and tortured Beorn (hence the chains and vendetta), and remained at Dol Guldur until his eventual participation in the Battle of Five Armies, in which he would be killed by an avenging Beorn, per the book….
The CGI became a necessity when Jackson changed too much around late in the game. For example, early trailers for the Desolation of Smaug showed CGI Azog at the river sequence. In the final film, it’s CGI Bolg instead, as CGI Azog is back at Dol Guldur.
The original practical iteration of Azog is actually Yazneg from An Unexpected Journey, I believe. Anyway, the whole Bolg change is such a huge waste of potential, all to give made-up characters more screentime. And the fact that Legolas ends up stealing Beorn’s big W from him? Lame beyond words.
We didn’t need Azog at all – Smaug is the antagonist of the story, and the dwarves have enough adventures and struggles along the way with the trolls, goblins, Gollum, spiders, and wood elves to keep the action going without a recurring villain hounding their steps. Smaug becomes almost an afterthought with all of Azog’s screen time padding two brilliant movies into 3 okay ones.