I believe there is one thing we can assume Stephen Colbert the character and Stephen Colbert the person have in common: a fanatic love for Tolkien literature. Somehow Colbert the person found time in the final months of his beloved television show, The Colbert Report, to write a cover story on The Hobbit for this week's Entertainment Weekly.

In the article, Colbert talks about hosting the recent Hobbit Comic-Con panel and sharing his love for both the novels and the film adaptations of Tolkien's work. The magazine photographed Colbert in the Gandalf, Legolas, and Bilbo costumes for three separate covers.

The final film in the Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, will be released on December 17th. While you wait, here's footage of Colbert destroying James Franco in a Tolkien trivia showdown: