The dwarf Gimli and the one who embodies him to perfection, John Rhys Davies, have had a leading role throughout the trilogy of Lord of the Rings, however, the character and actor were absent from the Hobbit.
Gimli was the only dwarf of the Fellowship of the Ring, and one of the bravest and mightiest in battle, as shown by the Lore of JRR Tolkien and its film adaptations. The father of Gimli, Glóin, debuts in the first work of Tolkien, The Hobbit, as a member of the company of Thorin. And if Gimli does not appear in the Hobbit trilogy, we do know, however, from the works of Tolkien, where he was.
The Hobbit Trilogy (books and films) is centered on Quest for Erebor, during which thirteen dwarves, the magician Gandalf and the hobbit Bilbo seek to recover the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasures for the dwarves. Gimli does not take his first steps in the 1937 novel, but Tolkien has already explained where he was during the events of the book. According to the unfinished tales and legends, a posthumous and canonical collection of the unfinished works of Tolkien, Gimli was in his sixties for The Hobbit. If, for the dwarves, he was in his prime, the rest of the company still considered him too young and forbade him to participate in this quest.
The film trilogy The Hobbit of Peter Jackson made many changes from the source novel, including the addition of Legolas, hero of Lord of the Rings, future member of the Community like Gimli. Gimli does not physically appear in the movies, but a scene from the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug includes a miniature portrait of him, and a brief dialogue between Legolas and Glóin mentions it. Yet the films have failed to stage John rhys davies in the role of Glóin, given the intended and relevant resemblance between the two. We asked Rhys davies to come back for the the hobbit trilogy, but he refused.
We asked John Rhys davies whether he would be interested in returning to the Middle-Earth adaptations as a younger Gimli or his father, but he declined all of those offers. In a 2009 interview, Rhys davies explained his decision, stating that he was not interested in wearing the facial prostheses required for dwarves in the movies, nor did he want to be a dwarf among thirteen others (unlike the Lord’s Trilogy of the rings, in which he was the only significant dwarf figure). Rhys davies has, however, expressed interest in the role of a non-dwarf character, including an elf, but he did not ultimately appear in any of the films of the Hobbit.