Peter Jackson reveals story behind Sean Bean 'walk into Mordor' meme in Lord of the Rings reunion

The fellowship returned after 20 years on Sunday, when Josh Gad hosted Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen, and more of the Lord of the Rings team for a Zoom reunion.

They were joined by castmates Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, Sean Bean, Liv Tyler, Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, and Karl Urban. Director Peter Jackson, composer Howard Shore, and co-writer Philippa Boyens were also featured in the event, which supported No Kid Hungry, a charity geared toward ending childhood hunger.

During the 50-minute chat, Jackson and the actors, many of whom appeared throughout the trilogy — The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) — revealed some tantalizing behind-the-scenes secrets.

For example, the filmmaker discussed the making of Boromir's (Bean) famous "One does not simply walk into Mordor" line that became a popular meme. Jackson said he wrote the iconic speech the day before the scene was filmed, and that Bean needed help remembering it.

“What Sean did, which I thought was really clever, is he got a print-out of the speech taped to his knee,” Jackson said. “If you watch the scene now, you’ll see every time that Sean has to check his script.”

Another iconic moment from the trilogy was Gandalf's (McKellen) opening line: “A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” During the reunion, Boyens said she actually came up with that herself, and the line was never in the novels from J.R.R. Tolkien.

The virtual get-together was fun, nostalgic, and even moving at times, especially when Astin recalled words from his character, Samwise Gamgee, and Wood's Frodo Baggins.

"Elijah, there's just a couple of words before yours that seem relevant in the COVID world," Astin said, before reciting: "In the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day must come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer ... There's some good left in this world, and it's worth fighting for."

The Lord of the Rings reunion is the latest installment of Josh Gad's Reunited Apart YouTube series. He recently brought together the Splash crew, including stars Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, and before that, the casts of Back to the Future and The Goonies.

Watch the full Lord of the Rings reunion above.

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