Stephen Colbert Does Cosplay, Dresses Up As Characters From Lord of the Rings

Stephen Colbert is a nerd. He's already revealed his Jedi-like understanding of the physics behind a lightsaber and he's now gone and dressed up as Lord of the Rings characters for a photoshoot for Entertainment Weekly. You can see how they transformed the comedian into Gandalf, Legolas, and Bilbo using the original costumes from The Hobbit in the video above—and see the resultant covers below.

As well as appearing on this week's cover he also wrote the cover story about The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, the final film in the franchise from Peter Jackson, as well as a Q&A with the director.

He's basically a massive Tolkien fanboy and he even had a cameo in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as a Lake-town spy.

Writing about Middle Earth he says: "Tolkien’s work has been a lifelong haven for me—truly a light in dark places when all other lights went out. For an awkward teenager, Middle-earth was a world I could escape to. Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth also gave me a world to escape to, but by the time his films came out, I was rich and famous and didn’t really want to escape my life anymore. Still, great movies."