Everyone's favorite early aughts movie trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, will be celebrating its 25th birthday later this year. And the movie's stars are honoring it early!
Sean Astin, who played the lovable hobbit Samwise Gamgee, took to his Instagram page over the weekend to share a selfie from his night out with three of his hobbit co-stars.
A Lord of the Rings hobbit reunion
He was joined by Elijah Wood, aka the leading Frodo Baggins, Billy Boyd, aka Peregrin "Pippin" Took, and Dominic Monaghan, aka Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck.
© Instagram"The band's all here," Sean captioned the snap, which immediately made the rounds on social media, picking up over half a million likes (and counting, as of writing), and garnering many fan reactions.
"Oh my good lord," actress Jaimie Alexander commented, with even the official Audible Instagram page writing: "Small in stature, HUGE in our hearts."
One fan wrote: "Imagine you're the hostess at this restaurant and the four hobbits roll up," with another joking: "And one plate of onion rings to bring them all," and a third adding: "Must be cool to be part of one of the greatest things ever created."
© Getty ImagesHow close the Lord of the Rings stars are 25 years later
Over two decades in, the Lord of the Rings cast remains incredibly close, especially the four hobbit leads. Elijah confirmed as much during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in March.
"25 years! Quarter of a century, how are we already here?" he mused on the late night show, noting that he, Sean, Dominic and Billy in particular have their own group chat that they still text on every day.
© Getty Images"It's called 'Shire-Folk'," he shared, revealing that it previously used to be "The Hobbits" but Dominic thought it was too "on the nose," and they text every single day to discuss their triumphs with the New York Times daily crosswords.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy's legacy
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings series of novels, the very first of the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, was released in December 2001 to much acclaim and incredible box office receipts.
© Getty ImagesThe film has grossed nearly $900 million worldwide after subsequent re-releases, and at the time, it was named one of the highest grossing movies of all time (second highest in 2001, only behind another franchise-starter, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).
It received 13 nominations at the 74th Academy Awards, winning four in total. In 2002, the second of the trilogy, The Two Towers, was released, to further critical acclaim and over $920 million grossed worldwide. It also received six nominations at the 75th Academy Awards, winning two.
The final film in the trilogy, 2003's The Return of the King, proved to be the biggest success of all. It not only made over $1 billion worldwide, it cemented the trilogy in place as one of the greatest of all time, and won all 11 awards it was nominated for at the 76th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, tying Ben-Hur and Titanic for the most won by a single film in one night.
