The Lord of the Rings cast reunite over Zoom.
It’s been 19 years since we were first introduced to Peter Jackson’s movie version of The Lord of the Rings, but some things never lose their appeal. This was the Star Wars of our generation, an epic story where friendship and loyalty and hope triumphed over great evil in the end. We all know we could use some of that hope right now, and just this morning, it was brought to us by the main cast of the Lord of the Rings and comedian Josh Gad.
So what does Gad—the guy who drives celebrities around in Carpoool Karaoke and played Olaf in Frozen—have to do with the Lord of the Rings? Well, during the lockdown in the US, he’s been very active on his Youtube channel, hosting a series called Reunited Apart. The show gathers the casts of iconic films (he’s done Back to the Future, Splash, and Goonies in the past few weeks) and brings them back together to talk about their experiences while making the movies. And for a trilogy as massive as the Lord of the Rings was, you can expect them to talk about a lot of those.
This episode of Reunited Apart brings back Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Astin (Sam), Dominic Monaghan (Merry), Billy Boyd (Pippin), Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), Sean Bean (Boromir), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), Andy Serkis (Gollum), and a few other members of the cast that we won’t be spoiling here.
Together with director Peter Jackson and script writer Philippa Boyens, they talk about what it was like on and off set, their favorite moments, and pay a short tribute to Christopher Lee (Saruman), who passed away in 2015. They also perform a few scenes from the films, and it’s great to see them get back into character after so long (watch out for Ian McKellen’s lines, because his Gandalf is still very much on point).
Over the course of the show, we learn that some of the most iconic lines didn’t come from the books, that Sean Bean hates flying, and that some of them took home a few props from the set (they even wear it for a bit in the show).
And since it’s become a tradition with Josh Gad, there’s also a bit of singing. Billy Boyd performs Pippin’s song—Edge of Night—which he sang in Gondor for Denethor in The Return of the King. While the song is a little bleak, it’s balanced out by Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Ian McKellen performing some of their most rousing and hopeful lines from the films. Again, we’re not spoiling it here. In any case, you can catch the year’s most fantastic reunion here:
