Stephen Colbert

Stephen Tyrone Colbert is a comedic actor and satirist who had his own self-titled show on the cable channel Comedy Central, and now is host of the Late Show. He is a long-time fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's works and reads Elvish. In the beginning stages of Stephen Colbert's announcement that he was going to be in the first Hobbit sequel, it was rumored that he was playing an Elf with no dialogue, though it was never confirmed. Stephen Colbert appeared in a cameo as a Lake-town spy for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Prior to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey coming out, Stephen Colbert had stars like Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman appear on his show to discuss and promote the film. Both stars ended up seeing just how huge a Tolkien fan Colbert really was. In anticipation of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Colbert interviewed Smaug on his show.

In addition, Stephen Colbert had Liv Tyler appear on the show. She brought Arwen's sword Hadhafang, which she said was a gift from Peter Jackson, as well as reenacted a scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, with Colbert as Frodo and Tyler as Arwen delivering her lines in Elvish. Andy Serkis also made several appearances with Stephen Colbert, one of which he read Donald Trump's tweets as Gollum, and revealed he voiced 132 characters while reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for audiobooks on Audible.

Colbert owns prop replicas of Andúril, gifted to him on-set by Viggo Mortensen, and Sting, given to him by Peter Jackson during filming for The Desolation of Smaug.

Peter Jackson when talking about Colbert has said, "I have never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life … Philippa Boyens is our resident Tolkien expert, and when Stephen came down to visit the set, we put him head to head with Philippa on a Tolkien quiz—and Stephen triumphed. I have to say, his encyclopedic knowledge of Tolkien is spectacular, and points to a deprived childhood in some respects.”