On December 2, 2003, I was invited to join a few other journalists to interview the actors and crew of The Lord of the Rings. For me (Jonathan), for a “kid” in his mid-20s who turned a website into one of the largest online destinations for Tolkien fans on the internet, it was the unexpected zenith of the previous 4 years running the TheOneRing.com.

So, when listening, remember that no one had yet seen Return of the King, and PJ hadn’t yet done The Hobbit. We didn’t know that this film would garner 13 Academy Awards–or that it would cap what many argue is the greatest film trilogy of all time. We knew the expectations for this film were high, but it hadn’t yet met (or eclipsed) those.

I recorded all the roundtable interviews on my 2000s-era iPod with a simple little microphone–which means the audio quality on this is a little rough. So, *HUGE* thanks to Lee Scrivner from the Speculative Tolkienism show on the Deep Guild YouTube channel. Check them out at YouTube!

I hope you enjoy this detour down memory lane! And make sure you become a member at https://theonering.com/members! I talk more in depth about

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🗣 Special Thanks to Austin Robertson for the use of his voice!

🖼 Special Thanks to Anna Grumbine for the artwork!