Satirist and soon to be late night show host Stephen Colbert gets the opportunity to wear the costumes from The Hobbit.
Update: Added additional pictures from Entertainment Weekly.
Original story: Stephen Colbert played one role in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Now he gets to pretend to be some of the most important characters in the story. Colbert, the host of The Colbert Report wrote an essay about The Hobbit for Entertainment Weekly and cosplayed as Bilbo, Legolas, and Gandalf for the cover.
Publishing next week, this issue of Entertainment Weekly gives a space for Colbert to talk about his relationship with J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Colbert, who has shown off his Tolkien knowledge before, said Tolkien’s stories about Middle-earth served as an escape for him during his teenage years.
Colbert was also given the opportunity to dress up as characters from The Hobbit. Not only did he get to cosplay – he got to wear the actual costumes from the set.
“Just me and a few of my friends got together to play dress-up,” Colbert said. “Lucky for me, my ‘friends’ are the wardrobe department for The Hobbit. The original costumes and wigs were flown in from New Zealand just for me. They didn’t even fly the costumes out of New Zealand for the actors! They had to wear them there!“
The Entertainment Weekly issue will have three different collector’s covers, photographed by Ruven Alfanador, as Colbert dressed up as Bilbo, Legolas, and Gandalf. Colbert’s final episode of The Colbert Report airs Dec. 18. Colbert will take over as host of The Late Show in 2015.
The final Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies releases in theaters on Dec. 17.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
