Colbert Co-Writing New Lord of the Rings Film With Peter Jackson
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- Stephen Colbert is co-writing the screenplay for a new Lord of the Rings movie, to be produced by Peter Jackson, who directed the original Tolkien trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy.
- Colbert's Tolkien fandom dates to childhood: after his father and two brothers died in a 1974 plane crash when he was 10, he retreated into fantasy novels and Dungeons & Dragons — which he played heavily for four years — telling the AV Club the roleplaying was early training in "good improvisation with agreed rules."
- The Colbert Report, which debuted in 2005 after eight years on The Daily Show, opened with Colbert's faux-conservative pundit character coining the word "truthiness" — "believing something is true because it feels true" — a persona he modeled on Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.
- Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in the original Lord of the Rings films, made an in-character cameo on The Colbert Report in 2007, and Colbert's real-life Tolkien fandom repeatedly surfaced on the show.
- Colbert's Late Show on CBS, which he took over in 2015, grew into the most-watched late-night network talkshow in the US, routinely outdrawing Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show on NBC and Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC.
- CBS canceled The Late Show entirely — not just Colbert's hosting — with his contract expiring in May 2026, a move the source notes was widely read as potentially tied to the Paramount-Skydance merger pending before the second Trump administration that Colbert had frequently skewered.
Why it matters: CBS chose to exit the late-night business entirely rather than retain its highest-rated host, with Colbert's Late Show ending in May 2026 amid a pending Paramount-Skydance merger review. The LOTR screenplay marks his return to the Tolkien fantasy that shaped his comedic voice after a childhood tragedy.
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