Josh Gad Reunites The Cast Of THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy In The Latest "Reunited Apart" Episode

Jun 1

One of the silver linings of us all being stuck at home the past few months has been seeing so many casts from classic TV shows and movies get back together again for virtual reunions. Some of my favoriteshave been the ones hosted by Josh Gad with his Reunited Apart fundraising series on YouTube. So far Gad has gotten the casts of The Goonies, Back to the Future, and Splash back together and if you haven’t already seen them they are all worth checking out. But over the weekend Gad held his most epic reunion yet — getting the Fellowship back together reuniting the cast of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost 20 years since the first installment in Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy debuted in theaters in December 2001. I’m admittedly a huge fan of all of these movies, so it was great to see so many members of the cast come back together after so many years and it was definitely a nice pick-me-up after all the bad news we’ve all been dealing with the last few months (and last week in particular).

There are so many things to love about this reunion — from the stories the cast shared about filming, to the cast showing off their famous Fellowship tattoos and re-enacting scenes, to the surprise guest that showed up toward the end of the nearly hour-long reunion to ask trivia questions.

I always love hearing the behind-the-music of some of my favorite films and this reunion is full of fun stories. In between cracking jokes, Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) revealed his first day on set was for his first scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, when he meets up with Frodo in the Shire. The second scene he shot was Galdalf's farewell in The Return of the King. I’m still amazed they shot all 3 of the LOTR movies at once.

Then, there’s the story about John Rhys-Davies and the lazy boy recliner he had on set to relax in. Yes. Really. We also hear about how that famous Sean Bean “One does not simply walk into Mordor” speech that has since become a famous internet meme came about.

I could go on and on and on, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. If you are a fan of these films, this is an hour well spent, and it’s all to benefit No Kid Hungry, so donate if you can. I was in tears by the end, and I plan on watching it again.

Keep going to catch Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Dominic Monaghan (Merry Brandybuck), Billy Boyd (Pippin Took), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Sean Bean (Boromir), Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Liv Tyler (Arwen), Karl Urban (Eomer), Miranda Otto (Eowyn), Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, composer Howard Shore and a surprise guest in "One Zoom to Rule Them All."