J.R.R. Tolkein, author of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books and the first fantasy author to have two R initials in his name, will appear in an upcoming episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Or at least a fictionalized version of him will, confirmed producer Marc Guggenheim.
Guggenheim told Entertainment Weekly that his writing team has had an idea to include Tolkien for a while now.
"The writing staff had this idea that we could do a Lord of the Rings homage in the trenches of World War I," Guggenheim said.
Okay, why not?
When a show has a team of superheroes umping in and out of time at random, the options to integrate mythology, history, and popular culture are endless. Just this week we saw the team go to King Arthur's court and fight knights in the corniest cosplay armor I've ever seen on television.
Earlier this year, the team encountered George Lucas, and a run-in between him and the Legion of Doom caused him to drop out of film school and never create the Star Wars or Indiana Jones films. Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood, the two resident nerds on the crew subsequently saw their identities change as the movies that inspired their careers suddenly cased to exist.
If Legends can do George Lucas, then why not do Tolkien as well?
If it's anything like the other historical adventures the team has had this year, it'll be goofy fun, but one of the characters will go out of their way to explicitly point out to his or her teammates that what they're doing is "just like in Fellowship of the Ring!"
But hey, it could still be fun.
