‘Worst Idea Anyone Has Ever Had in History’: Stephen Colbert’s New Job Writing ‘Lord of the Rings’ Film Enrages Tolkien Fans

Fans of J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” series woke up to the surprising news that an anti-Trump comedian, Stephen Colbert, and his son are co-writing the script for a Warner Bros. sequel to the beloved series, and the fans are outraged.On Wednesday morning, Warner Bros. posted a video with Mr. Colbert — the soon-to-be former host of CBS’s “The Late Show — announcing that he is scripting “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past,” which follows the adventures of hobbits Sam, Merry, and Pippin 14 years after the “passing” of Frodo.“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” Mr. Colbert said in a video with producer Peter Jackson, who won an Academy Award for helming the original film series. “But the thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in [‘The Fellowship of the Ring’] that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day.”He added that he wants the story to be “something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies.”Stephen Colbert and his family are seen in costume for their appearance as extras in ‘The Desolation of Smaug.’ Warner Bros.Peter Jackson’s classic 2001 “Fellowship of the Ring” was hailed for its canny adaptation of the first book in a trilogy that had previously been viewed as unfilmable. But Mr. Jackson left out large tracts from the beginning of the book, including when the hobbits must escape the tomb of a wight and their encounter with a mysterious god-like figure named Tom Bombadil. The Colbert news angered many “Lord of the Rings” fans, who were already disappointed by Amazon’s ambitious and hugely expensive prequel, “Rings of Power,” which is widely considered an embarrassment. Detractors of the show took issue with its diversity — the show featured a black elf — which they said did not align with the demographics of ancient Europe, which was the original inspiration for Middle Earth. Other fans felt that the writing and storyline were not faithful to other “Lord of the Rings” stories written by Tolkien. The most common criticism, however, is that the writing and execution were wanting.Mr. Colbert has long been a huge Tolkien fan, and, once he was a celebrity, he and his family even appeared as extras in one of Peter Jackson’s trilogy of “Hobbit” movies. The decision to have Mr. Colbert — who regularly skewers President Trump and MAGA — co-write the script for another “Lord of the Rings” movie has left many fans distraught, fearing that he will infuse it with the same “woke” themes they disliked about “Rings of Power.”The actor John Lithgow reads an anti-Trump poem he wrote for Stephen Colbert. CBSA conservative commentator, Matt Walsh, wrote on X, “This might in fact be the worst idea anyone has ever had in history.”“LOTR had almost no female characters at all. Modern Hollywood sees that as a sin that must be rectified. They’re coming up with all of these sequels and spin offs almost entirely for the purpose of feminizing the franchise and injecting female characters into it. It’s feminist reparations,” he said. Another user joked, “Stephen Colbert is writing a lord of the rings spinoff. Buddy. He’s going to make Sauron Trump lmao. What a disaster.”“I won’t be watching anything made by this propaganda puppet who danced around on stage singing about covid vaccines,” wrote a conservative commentator, Jay Anderson. Part of the reason that conservatives were so upset by Amazon’s diversity-obsessed adaptation of the Middle Earth canon is that the “Lord of the Rings” books have long been influential on a certain strain of conservative power brokers, especially in Silicon Valley. Peter Thiel named two of his companies – Palantir and Mithril Capital – after the books, and the defense company Anduril, founded by Palmer Luckey, also takes its name from Middle Earth. The influential conservative philosopher, Curtis Yarvin, often uses Middle Earth metaphors, such as his famous take on “Elves and Hobbits,” to explain his views on modern society. Amazon’s decision to include black characters in Middle Earth for its ‘Rings of Power’ series led to accusations of ‘woke-ism’ from some fans. Amazon StudiosSome close readers of the Colbert announcement have already questioned the film’s faithfulness to the storyline, focusing on the portion of the synopsis that mentioned Frodo’s “passing.” A senior editor at the Federalist noted that the phrase implies Frodo died, while in the story, he left Middle Earth and entered the “undying lands.”With Mr. Colbert’s overtly anti-Trump politics came some comments linked to his coming departure from CBS. The studio behind the new movie is Warner Bros, which is in the process of being acquired by CBS’s corporate parent, Paramount Skydance.The chief executive of Paramount Skydance, David Ellison, and his father, Larry Ellison, are close to Mr. Trump. Last summer, when Skydance was seeking to acquire Paramount, Skydance lawyers made written commitments to the Federal Communications Commission that the company would eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and promised that CBS News would promise fair journalism. Around the same time, CBS announced that it was firing Mr. Colbert and ending “The Late Show” franchise, which it said was “purely” a financial decision. A reporter at Semafor, Josh Billinson, quipped that it was “kind of rude to set [Mr. Colbert] up to get fired by Paramount a second time.”Meanwhile, a writer at National Review, Jeff Blehar, predicted that the movie “will not get made.”Another conservative commentator, Russell Michaels, suggested that the Colbert script “seems like something Ellison would cancel immediately.”

‘Worst Idea Anyone Has Ever Had in History’: Stephen Colbert’s New Job Writing ‘Lord of the Rings’ Film Enrages Tolkien Fans

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