Stephen Colbert has never been afraid to show off his passion for J.R.R. Tolkien on The Colbert Report (see: this James Franco interview and this dissection of John McCain’s Lord of the Rings debt ceiling analogy) but next week he will take that love to new nerdy levels. Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report will present four nights of Hobbit-themed programming (Dec. 3 to Dec. 6), pegged to the Dec. 14 release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, EW has learned. Guests will include stars Ian McKellan (Dec. 3), Martin Freeman (Dec. 4) and Andy Serkis (Dec. 6), along with director Peter Jackson (Dec. 5).

Said Colbert in a statement: “Elen sila lumenn‘ omentielvo*… I mean that sincerely.”

Our host may or may not be sharing screen time with a few Hobbit actors on the big screen as well: He is rumored to have shot a cameo in the trilogy while visiting the New Zealand set. “It’s yet to be confirmed or denied,” Jackson told EW last month, though he did praise Colbert by saying, “I have never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life” and calling his “encyclopedic knowledge” of the fantasy author “spectacular.”

(*Translation: “A star shines upon the hour of our meeting”)

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