Remember the year 2002? Internet fandom was in full swing, but in many ways was still getting it’s legs, and sites like The Tolkien Sarcasm Page didn’t seem hopelessly quaint. And a little movie called The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring had just come out, and a little scene known as the Council of Elrond happened and in it there was a little unnamed elf who, for standing quietly on the edge of one, seconds long cut, captured the hearts and libidos of thousands of fans.

And he was to be called Figwit, “Legolas for the thinking woman.”

According to Variety, the actor who played him, Bret McKenzie (of later Flight of the Conchords fame), has been signed for The Hobbit.

The name Figwit was drawn from a simple acronym, “Frodo is grea… who is THAT?!” The campaign for better Figwit representation was created and eventually bore fruit in McKenzie being brought back to appear and have two speaking lines in The Return of the King.

Unfortunately, Figwit fans will have to stretch their imaginations a bit to bring Figwit to The Hobbit along with McKenzie: he’s signed up to play a Rivendell elf character called Lindir. But using creative speculation to breathe life into a character in ways the creators never intended is practically the mantra of fan fiction, so we don’t anticipate them having much trouble.

(via Topless Robot.)

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