Fans threatened Bakshi that "he'd better get it right" and according to the artist Mike Ploog, Bakshi constantly revised the story to include certain beasts at the behest of such fans. While writing, Zaentz found the similarity of the names Saruman and Sauron confusing, and it was decided to rename him "Ruman" or "Aruman" but when Beagle was rewriting the shooting script, he began reinstating the full name "Saruman" while the scenes were being recorded, which resulted in inconsistency in the wizard's name.