Last night, Stephen Colbert expressed his dismay for the lack of fanfare over 20th anniversary of the Lord of the Rings as compared to that of Harry Potter — the latter of which is getting a special on HBO Max. To right that wrong, The Late Show host and his bandleader, Jon Batiste, put together a rap video paying homage to the fantasy series with the assistance of the Lord of the Rings cast and a few rappers you may have heard of: Killer Mike and Method Man.
“Harry Potter is fine, but it’s no Lord of the Rings. Dumbledore couldn’t take a Balrog. [He] was killed by a high school chemistry teacher!” Colbert said while introducing the segment. “Peter Jackson’s towering achievement deserves the same kind of treatment because, if you ask me, there is no better film series. Lord of the Rings is, without a doubt, the greatest trilogy in movie history. And I know I may have said that many times before, but I have never — not once — rapped it.”
And with that, Colbert played his “#1 Trilly” video in which he larped as a rapper, donning a puffy winter coat and matching white fuzzy bucket hat. The nerdy raps were passable, (“Worldwide gross of almost three billy/ 16 times what they made off Free Willy“) but what made the segment fun was that it served as Colbert’s own cast reunion.
Taking part in the clip were movie stars Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee), Billy Boyd (Pippin), Dominic Monaghan (Merry), and Hugo Weaving (Elrond). The latter actor even rapped in Elvish.
Anna Kendrick randomly shows up after Astin disses Pitch Perfect, before Method Man and Killer Mike name-drop other lesser movie franchises like Toy Story, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Batman, and Twilight. Watch the video below.
Next year, Ringers can look forward to Amazon’s long-delayed Lord of the Rings TV series, which is set to premiere on September 2nd on Prime Video. There is also an anime movie titled The War of the Rohirrim in the works.
