‘Perfect Moment’: Why Stephen Colbert is a good fit for Lord of the Rings film | Stephen Colbert

TUsually, when a famous comedian ventures into writing, it’s in the service of a book of humorous essays or a script for a starring vehicle. Stephen Colbert, the beloved comedian-turned-talk-show host, is gearing up for an even stranger pivot: He’ll be working on the script for a new Lord of the Rings movie, which will be produced by franchise director Peter Jackson, who directed the original film trilogy based on JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novels, as well as a trilogy based on Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. To casual viewers of his now-ending Late Show on CBS, or those who remember his years as a contributor to Comedy Central’s irreverent The Daily Show, this may seem odd; Tolkien is not known for his satirical edge. However, Colbert is known for his love of Tolkien – among other things.

As befits his eventual vocation as a political satirist, Colbert was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of 11 children in a Catholic family that later lived in Maryland and South Carolina. The family suffered a major loss in 1974 when two of Colbert’s brothers and their father were killed in a plane crash. Only 10 years old, Colbert became withdrawn after the tragedy, retreating to books — especially fantasy books like Tolkien’s works — and games like Dungeons & Dragons, which he played intensely for four years. This provided some early training in acting and improvisation without him fully realizing it. “For someone who eventually became an actor, it was interesting to do it for many years, because acting is role-playing,” he told the AV Club in 2006. “You take on a character, and you have to stay in it over the years, making history, applying your powers. It’s good improvisation with rules agreed upon before you go in.”

After studying dramatic acting at Northwestern University, he parlayed his interest in improvisational performance to do comedy at Chicago’s legendary Second City, where he met future collaborators Steve Carell, Amy Sedaris, and Paul DiNello. They would all appear in his subsequent move to television: with Dinello and Sedaris, he co-created the short-lived sketch series Exit 57 and the comedy series Strangers with Candy, both of which aired on Comedy Central. Colbert also worked with Carell on The Dana Carvey Show, another short-lived comedy project, broadcast on network television and starring the former Saturday Night Live player, with writers including SNL alumnus Robert Smigel and future Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

Shortly after that show’s cancellation, Colbert took a position as a correspondent on another Comedy Central show: The Daily Show, during the show’s second season in 1997 (Colbert was there before Carell and even featured host Jon Stewart; they both joined in 1999). Over his eight years on the show, Colbert developed a persona that parodied pundits like Bill O’Reilly — using his own name, but applying a self-confident, annoying persona without any background knowledge of many of the topics he talks about. He developed the character further when he left in 2005 to star in a companion series, The Colbert Report. The show has made its mark since its first episode, with Colbert, as a conservative pundit, coining the term “truism” — referring to the belief that a statement or idea is true regardless of external facts or evidence, based on whether it “seems” true.

Perhaps honesty was applied to the version of Colbert in his self-titled show, which was both further and closer to his real persona. In broad strokes, this faux right-winger was completely out of touch with the comedian’s true personality: self-important, stupid, aggressive (or, in Colbert’s own words, a “well-intentioned, ill-informed, high-status idiot”) and modeled on major news outlets like O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. But playing the fake Colbert on TV also involved bringing in elements of Colbert’s real backstory, like his Catholic upbringing and love of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings films, even had a supporting role in The Colbert Report in 2007. In a 2008 interview, Colbert admitted that his on-air persona could sometimes carry his thoughts or beliefs onto radio shows or public appearances: “The weird thing about my character…is that sometimes I say what I mean. It doesn’t matter to me that the audience doesn’t know when it’s happening.” (Although he would say years later that Catholicism and The Lord of the Rings were essentially the only common ground between him and that character – while also allowing that his political beliefs were perhaps less left-wing than some might assume).

Colbert had the opportunity to ditch that hall of mirrors trick in 2015, when he ended The Colbert Report to take over the Late Show on CBS. The late-night talk show was originally created for David Letterman to compete with The Tonight Show in 1993. After Letterman retired, Colbert enthusiastically took over the host’s job — and as himself, not the critics’ version, which disappointed some fans of his performance art as he settled for a more mainstream, crowd-pleasing gig. However, given his Daily Show roots as well as the timing of his Late Show debut — just before the 2016 U.S. presidential election — Colbert’s version of The Late Show was more oriented toward political commentary than Letterman’s version, especially as Colbert found his footing. New York Times television critic James Poniewozik noted a change early in Trump’s first term: “Mr. Colbert’s comedy did not become radically different, but it was more frank and biting. Network Television” [Colbert] Funnier than his cable character. But it’s as if the Trump administration has solved the problem of reconciling new and old comedy by making honesty America’s official language.

Although, as Poniewozik noted, the satire was less violent than The Colbert Report, and fueled by plenty of the usual celebrity chit-chat, Colbert seemed more civilly engaged, and at times downright serious, than his rivals. The fans seemed to enjoy it too. Contrary to conventional wisdom that viewers don’t want to think too much about current events while eating their late-night comfort food, Colbert’s Late Show has grown its audience as it becomes more politically focused. Ultimately, it was the most watched late-night network talk show in the United States, and is routinely watched by more viewers than NBC’s Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show or Jimmy Kimmel Live! On ABC. So it came as a surprise to some when CBS made the decision to end the show with Colbert’s contract expiring in May 2026.

The wholesale cancellation of The Late Show, not just Colbert’s hosting of it, was intended to signal that the network was merely exiting the expensive late-night business, rather than (as some suspected) enacting a penalty for Colbert criticizing Trump so harshly to curry favor with the second Trump administration (which, at the time of cancellation, was in a position to block a merger between CBS parent company Paramount and Skydance Media). However, despite the decline in late-night voting ratings and fortunes, the exclusion of such a prominent figure in the field seems like a punishment.

Maybe this is just “honesty” rearing its ugly head again. Regardless, Colbert made a great case for the late-night show establishment in an interview after the cancellation was announced: “All those things that might make you confused or angry or anxious or happy or surprised or something like that, I share those feelings with the audience and they laugh or they don’t laugh. And there’s a sense of community there. There are fewer and fewer of what we would call third spaces in our lives. Not your home, not your work, but another place where we come together. And these late-night shows are for millions of Americans a third space to come together and think about This day.

This thinking often appeared in his less comedic clips, such as in a 2021 interview with Andrew Garfield in which he touched on his grief over the recent loss of his mother. Garfield later spoke about how Colbert created this space for him: “The openness and ownership he has toward topics that seem culturally taboo, like grief, allows his guests to connect and reveal those aspects of themselves and their experiences. In return, the audience gets an experience that is real, deep, and connected. So, the show feels like an act of service to people.” (“I think Stephen would have been a great priest,” he added.)

This sense of talk shows as a public space seems to be disappearing; Even with the departure of a loyal figure like Conan O’Brien in recent years. It seems unlikely that Colbert will retire from the entertainment industry. (When asked if he would leave after the Late Show ended, he said a definitive “no,” adding, “Because I like to create things and I still want to work with the people I work with.”) In some ways, writing Lord of the Rings feels like a full-circle moment, taking him back to the literature and acting roles that comforted him in his youth — and it might be healthier than forcing a talk show host to keep hosting talk shows. Colbert also seems to reveal aspects of himself in stages: at first he’s a comedian playing obviously made-up roles; Then it was a fake critic who shared his name; Then a talk show host who has the personality of an artist but is closer to himself. If he finds a way to get back to writing and/or performing while revealing more of himself, Colbert could be headed for a great third or fourth act.