Josh Gad’s YouTube series Reunited Apart has hosted socially distant cast reunions for beloved films like Back to the Future, Splash, and The Goonies, but the most recent episode brought back the Fellowship of the Ring (and other assorted parties) for “One Zoom to Rule Them All.”
The reunion, which also included director Peter Jackson and co-writer/producer Philippa Boyens, was a delightful opportunity for the cast members to reminisce about the quirkier aspects of shooting all three Lord of the Rings movies at once.
Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, revealed that his first day on set was for his first scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, when he meets up with Frodo in the Shire. The second scene he shot was Galdalf’s farewell in The Return of the King.
“I had to meet the hobbits to say goodbye to them,” McKellen said on the Zoom. “I’d never met them before!”
The frenetic scheduling also led to one of The Fellowship of the Ring‘s most memed moments possible: Sean Bean as Boromir’s “one does not simply walk into Mordor” line.
“That entire speech that Sean had to deliver at the council of Elrond,” Peter Jackson said, “was written the night before…we gave it to Sean the morning he arrived. What Sean did, which I thought was very clever, is he got a printout of the speech taped to his knee. When he did that scene, you’ll see,” Jackson then mimed Boromir’s iconic exasperated face looking down at his lap as he delivered the line:
As seen in the GIF above, Bean’s face is looking down at the crib notes in his lap as he prepares the beginning of his speech, setting the stage for the One Does Not Simply meme to take over the world.
Sometimes movie magic is motion capturing an entire performance to create Gollum. Sometimes it’s as easy as realizing that one does not simply memorize an entire speech in a matter of minutes and finding a clever way to cheat the system. Thanks for the meme-ories, Sean Bean.