Political commentator Matt Walsh has taken a dig at Stephen Colbert after the announcement that the late-night host would be co-writing a new Lord of the Rings movie. On Tuesday night Warner Bros. made an announcement that Colbert and his son Peter McGee will be co-writing the next LOTR movie along with franchise scriptwriter Philippa Boyens.
Colbert and his son reportedly pitched the movie to director Peter Jackson two years ago. According to Variety, the working title of the movie is The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. The film will reportedly enter into production after The Hunt for Gollum. Stephen Colbert is exiting his late-night show, and it will be his first work in film scriptwriting.
As the news surfaced online, many reacted to it. The Daily Wire host Matt Walsh also shared his take on Colbert’s new role. Responding to Variety’s report, Walsh commented:
“This might in fact be the worst idea anyone has ever had in history.”
During the Tuesday announcement, Peter Jackson was joined by Colbert on video call. In the conversation, the late-night host said that while both the books and films meant a lot to him, he was especially drawn to several early chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring that were not developed in the first movie. He suggested these chapters could form a separate story that remains faithful to both the original books and the existing films.
Stephen Colbert recalled that he shared this idea with his son, and after forming a foundation, they started working with screenwriter Philippa Boyens to develop a script.
Matt Walsh continues criticism of new ‘Lord of the Rings’ plot co-written by Stephen Colbert
In its report, Variety also offered the synopsis of the upcoming LOTR movie, which read:
“Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo – Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”
After calling it the “worst idea” to have Stephen Colbert as a writer in Lord of the Rings, Matt Walsh doubled down on his criticism. In a follow-up tweet, the media personality slammed the plot of the upcoming for seemingly being female-centric. He commented:
“LOTR had almost no female characters at all. Modern Hollywood sees that as a sin that must be rectified. They’re coming up with all of these sequels and spin offs almost entirely for the purpose of feminizing the franchise and injecting female characters into it. It’s feminist reparations. That’s why this godawful sequel concept will apparently center around a female character.”
Matt Walsh has remained a critic of Stephen Colbert. Last year, when CBS decided to pull the plug on the late-night show, the issue got politicized. At the time, Walsh questioned Colbert’s rating and suggested that the decision was made at the financial loss. He also accused the talk show host of being politically biased.
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Edited by Sohini Biswas