Countdown to Middle Earth: Watch The Colbert Report’s Week-Long Hobbit Tribute

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We’re less than a week away from the premiere of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which features a large percentage of the British acting population in some role or other, including Sherlock’s Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, MI-5’s Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis, Being Human’s Aidan Turner and more.

Those of us who are big fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle Earth are over the moon at being so close finally getting to return to the world of hobbits, dwarves and wizards after a near ten-year absence. Stephen Colbert, the host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, is also a huge Tolkien enthusiast and featured a week-long tribute to The Hobbit on his show this past week. This included turning his set into a replica of Bag End and reimagining the map of New York, Lord of the Rings style.

Colbert featured four nights of interviews with The Hobbit cast – Freeman, McKellen and Serkis – as well as director Jackson. Watch all four below.

It’s always great to watch a group of people who love what they’re doing so much! The Hobbit certainly seems to be well in hand with this group.

Sir Ian McKellen: Watch Colbert congratulate McKellen on his successful fifty year career and him finally getting it right with that whole “Gandalf thing”.

Martin Freeman: Watch Freeman show off one of his proudest achievements: being immortalized as a LEGO character. (He is really just perfectly cast as Bilbo Baggins!)

Andy Serkis:  There is so much awesomeness in this segment, including Sir Ian McKellan popping up again to bark “You shall not pass!” at Colbert, and Serkis giving him tips on how to play Gollum.

 

Peter Jackson: And, finally, the man himself.

 


Lacy Baugher

Lacy's love of British TV is embarrassingly extensive, but primarily centers around evangelizing all things Doctor Who, and watching as many period dramas as possible.

Digital media type by day, she also has a fairly useless degree in British medieval literature, and dearly loves to talk about dream poetry, liminality, and the medieval religious vision. (Sadly, that opportunity presents itself very infrequently.) York apologist, Ninth Doctor enthusiast, and unabashed Ravenclaw. Say hi on Threads or Blue Sky at @LacyMB. 

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