Watch Hugo Weaving Rap In Elvish To Celebrate Lord Of The Rings Anniversary
Check out Hugo Weaving rap in Elvish!
The first time Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith interrogates the still oblivious Neo (Keanu Reeves) in 1999’s The Matrix, his purposely slow, careful manner of speech probably doesn’t make you think, “He’s probably a rapper.” Well, as far as we know Weaving isn’t going on tour with Method Man or Killer Mike any time soon, but that doesn’t mean he can’t rap and in Elvish, no less. That’s right — to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the man who played Elrond in the film rapped in an actual, bonafide Elvish tongue. And he wasn’t alone.
The epic event happened Thursday night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The segment opens with Colbert bemoaning the fact that — in spite of the 20th anniversary of the first Lord of the Rings film’s release happening Sunday, December 19 — so far there been no widespread celebration. Soon we see what the host has done to remedy the situation, and it is a thing of beauty. The music video for “#1 Trilly” unfolds with Colbert, Method Man, and Killer Mike helping stars from the cast of Lord of the Rings deliver the argument that there is no better trilogy — or trilly — than Peter Jackson’s beloved adaptations. Out of everyone who shows up, however, Hugo Weaving — who played the Elrond the Elf in the Lord of the Rings films as well as two of The Hobbit adaptations — is the only one who raps in the Elvish tongue Quenya. You can watch the unbelievable clip below.
As you can see in the clip, Hugo Weaving is joined by his Lord of the Rings co-stars Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, and Andy Serkis. Viggo Mortensen appears in a quick shot to highlight the tooth he famously lost while filming his character Aragorn’s vicious sword fight with the Uruk Hai villain Lurtz. While she isn’t in the trilogy, Anna Kendrick appears as well, to hilariously suffer the shade thrown at the teen musical comedy film series Pitch Perfect. Other trilogies brutally dissed for not coming close to the “#1 Trilly,” include Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Godfather, Toy Story, The Dark Knight, Back to the Future, and even The Mighty Ducks.
Perhaps the best dis comes straight from Hugo Weaving when his turn comes to rap in Quenya — one of the Elvish languages J.R.R. Tolkien constructed when creating his mythology. The actor lists other trilogies that pale in comparison to Lord of the Rings and when he gets to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, he says, “Dan Brown barely speaks English. Yeah. I said it.” The author has yet to issue a response.
But not everyone was impressed with the Elvish tongue as it was presented in “#1 Trilly.” WizardWayKris, who regularly refers to themself as “TikTok’s resident Elfboi” called Colbert out for missing something, though they seemingly had no problem with the performance of Hugo Weaving. Instead, they pointed out that the Elvish-looking letters on Method Man’s cap — meant to be “Method” in Quenya — were wrong. Rather than actually translating English-to-Quenya, Kris said, “Method” was simply written out in a different font. Kris also made sure to point out that while normally they would let it slide, Colbert’s status as one of the world’s most famous Lord of the Rings fans meant he was fair game.
