Watcher in The Water - Portrayal in Adaptations

Portrayal in Adaptations

The Watcher in the Water appears in both film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings: Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings (1978) and Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Bakshi's work follows the book relatively faithfully for this sequence, with only the Watcher's tentacles seen. After Sam frees Frodo from its clutches, Boromir rushes forward and hacks at its tentacles for a few seconds. In Jackson's adaptation, the Watcher is portrayed as a colossal, black, giant squid-like monster with a gaping mouth and rows of sharp teeth. Here, too, it grabs Frodo with its tentacles as described in the book, and reaches out for the rest of the Fellowship following Frodo's rescue. Peter Jackson revealed in the commentaries that the original idea was to have Bill the Pony dragged under water by the Watcher but this was changed.

The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop, based on Jackson's film, calls the Watcher in the Water the "Guardian of the Doors of Durin". Due to the popularity of the creature several other items depicting the Watcher were released after the film.

The Watcher made its first appearance in The Fellowship of the Ring video game and has since appeared in several games. The Watcher is used as power hero that can be purchased by points in Battle for Middle-earth II, but it makes no formal appearance. The Watcher drops rare First Age weapons in The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, requiring a 12-man raid to beat it.

The Watcher in the Water also appears in the logo at the start of the Battle for Middle-earth games franchise in front of the Moria Gate that leads to the Mines of Moria and subsequently the Balrog. It has since appeared in many other different Lord of the Rings games.