These days everyone has a podcast, so why not a couple of hobbits talking about life in Middle-earth? That’s exactly what’s happening with The Friendship Onion, which will feature actors Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd talking all things pop culture—and in particular, the franchise that brought them together, The Lord of the Rings.
“I am contractually obliged to make a glowing comment here in regards to the podcast Billy and I are making together. This is proving difficult as Billy has abducted me and is holding me for ransom to the price of 44 bananas. Please, send bananas,” Monaghan said to Deadline, which broke the news.
“Dom took a little persuading, it’s true, but this podcast is going to rock. He is such a joker, you have to love Dom. Ha… but you also have to love bananas, so… yes, send bananas,” Boyd added.
Produced by Kast Media, the podcast will debut May 18 on all podcast platforms, including Spotify, and will have a video element on YouTube as well. Here’s a brief teaser trailer.
Now, as you can tell by that clip (and that the podcast isn’t called “Lord of the Rings something”) the fact that Monaghan played Merry and Boyd played Pippin in the epic, Oscar-winning trilogy won’t be the only topic of discussion. According to Deadline, the show will “bring banter, stories and comedy to the podcasting space, each week digging into the latest in pop culture, put fans’ Lord of the Rings knowledge to the test, reveal exclusive stories from filming and maybe even welcome surprise drop-ins from famous faces.”
Paging Elijah Wood and Sean Astin.
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DISCUSSION
That wonderful trilogy came with such rich commentary tracks as well. The first film had one track with a bunch of the actors, including the Merry and Pippin actors coming out on top in terms of humour, so much so that they just outright(!) got their own friggin track to make comments on when it came time for the second and then third film. I forget who or how it went, so I’ll just paraphrase them... when Legolas was taking down one of the Oliphaunts at the Siege of Gondor, Dominic or Billy said “yeah Orlando Bloom did his own stunts... but this scene was quite strenuous for him to do.” And the other actor added “Yeah, he had to practice jumping on smaller creatures first then go on to larger animals. He started out on gerbils, and then moved on to large hamsters!”
- Brilliant!