Stephen Colbert Dresses as Bilbo, Legolas, & Gandalf From ‘The Hobbit’ on the Cover of Entertainment Weekly Magazine

Stephen Colbert, who is a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, “got to enact a childhood fantasy” by dressing as Bilbo, Legolas, and Gandalf for the cover of the The Hobbit-themed issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine. He even conducted an interview with the fearsome dragon Smaug on The Colbert Report. According to Entertainment Weekly, Colbert also wrote their cover story for the upcoming release of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, which will be the “final film in Peter Jackson’s second Tolkien trilogy.” The new Hobbit film hits theaters next week on Wednesday, December 17, 2014.

photos by Ruven Afanador for Entertainment Weekly