Stephen Colbert gets the Lord of the Rings cast for epic anniversary rap

If it was not clear from Polygon’s 52-week Year of the Ring deep dive, Dec. 19, 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring. While much has changed in the movie industry, and indeed the world, in that time, one thing has remained stable and true: Stephen Colbert’s love of all things Lord of the Rings.

On Wednesday’s The Late ShowColbert managed to leverage his fandom and bring about a reunion for the cast. The tribute rap to the franchise featured Elijah Wood (Sean Astin), Billy Boyd and Hugo Weaving as well.

While “57-year old talk show host rapping” might sound a little cringe, once the mic gets passed to Method Man and Killer Mike, the song really starts to cook. It takes off when Elvish rap gets going.

Disses for other franchises come in hot and heavy, with Killer Mike going after Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy as “capitalistic propaganda,” and Anna Kendrick gets insult after insult hurled her way for Pitch Perfect and Twilight, despite her protesting that she’s barely in those movies.

Colbert’s love of The Shire, Rohan, Gondor, and all the other wonderful locales of Middle-earth is no secret by this point. Colbert-heads were not privy to this secret. In 2006, Colbert’s acerbic personality was still the most prominent on Colbert-heads. The Colbert Report, a New York profile noted “a few distinctive decorative touches” in his office, like a Lord of the Rings pinball game.

In fact, the author notes that one difficulty in trying to capture a star with a rabid fanbase like Colbert had at the time “is that when you point out things like the fact that he’s a huge Lord of the Rings Nerd who has a large picture book called “Nerd” on his desk A Tolkien BestiaryAround half of the readers believe so. Hmmm, interesting,While the other half thinks, Yes! Yes! Yes! Colbert’s a Tolkien nut!”

Word soon spread. Entertainment Weekly published a series of photos featuring Colbert dressed up in Middle-earth attire, including Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf.

The Report, guests like James Franco began challenging Colbert to “Tolkien-offs,” and losing poorly. This tradition was continued by Colbert as he moved on to his next project. The Late ShowFrom Scott Rogowsky (one-time HQ Trivia host) to the Hobbit Trilogy cast member Lee Pace, who attempted to greet Colbert with one of Tolkien’s languages. When Pace was struggling, Colbert not only corrected him, but noted that he was attempting a language which his character—Thranduil, son of Oropher, the Elvenking, wouldn’t typically speak. In shock, Pace collapsed into his chair.

Colbert earned himself a blink-and-you-missed-it cameo in Smaug’s Desolation, but perhaps the height of his public fandom came in 2015, when a Turkish doctor named Bilgin Ciftci was arrested by his government for posting pictures online comparing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Gollum. Arrested for violating a law which censures anyone who “publicly denigrates state officials, the government and the judicial institutions of the state,” Cifti had a novel defense: Gollum was not actually a villain. The court was actually thinking of Sméagol.

Colbert was there to help Tolkien specialists around the globe. The Silmarillion. Eventually, after his lawyers repeatedly watched the movies to back up his claims, and after a panel of Turkish experts declared Gollum “not evil,” Cifti was acquitted.

Colbert’s obsession is also a mutual love affair. In 2019, he tried pitching Peter Jackson on a spinoff for his cameo character, Lake-town Spy, as Darrlygorn, Aragorn’s more handsome brother. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, also known as Merry and Pippin came to the table. Late Show In an attempt to promote their podcast, Jackson and Boyd offered Colbert two trivia question to help stump him. When Boyd’s question about the Ents actually drew a blank for Colbert, a pre-recorded message from Jackson came in: “We’ve got to answer the question, who knows Merry and Pippin better: Merry and Pippin, or Stephen Colbert.”

Colbert was the winner.