Stephen Colbert took it upon himself to give The Lord of the Rings twentieth anniversary its proper celebration. Accompanied by four hobbits, an ancient elven king, and three legendary rappers, the late-night host rapped about the greatness of Peter Jackson’s trilogy.
The Lord of the Rings celebrates twenty years since its worldwide release in movie theaters in 2001. Stephen Colbert, famously known to be a huge LOTR fan, was inspired by other film series such as the Harry Potter franchise celebrating its anniversary and took it upon himself to party like it’s the second age of Middle-Earth. In a three-minute rap video on his late-night show, Mr. Colbert rapped about how LOTR is the best trilogy ever made. In the rap video, he is accompanied by Elijah Wood who famously portrayed Frodo Baggins, Billy Boyd who interpreted Pippin Took, Dominic Monaghan who acted the role of Merry Brandybuck, and Sean Astin who was Frodo’s loyal friend Samwise Gamgee.
Hugo Weaving, who was Elrond, the king of Rivendell in the series, came out of retirement to perform a 20-second rap. The actor rhymed his lyrics in the ancient tongue of the elves, Quenya, while Andy Serkis who interpreted the CGI animated Gollum played the flute in the background. Legendary rappers such as Killer Mike and Method Man were on the song as well, comparing trilogies and declaring LOTR superiority to rule over all other “trillys”. Many of the original cast members were not in the video such as Sir Ian McKellen, the wizard Gandalf, and Vigo Mortensen, Aragorn the King of Gondor. But Orlando Bloom, who played fan-favorite elf prince Legolas, briefly appeared as a caricature of himself.
The twentieth anniversary of Peter Jackson’s take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece is an indication of how fans of the franchise crave for more. After The Hobbit trilogy (2012) was a huge success, Amazon bought the rights to the Lord of the Rings lore outside of the actual trilogy, which contains a lot of material that will be included in an upcoming television series. Little is still known about the Amazon Prime show coming out in October 2022, but fans such as Stephen Colbert can’t wait to see it. Make sure to watch the performance below!
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