Elijah Wood hit the big stage at this year’s Calgary Expo over the weekend to talk about his vast filmography, which included a fantastic fart story during Lord of The Rings, as well as the anguish about how there won’t be a third season of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
The one guest that I wanted to see most at this year’s Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo was Elijah Wood and he did not disappoint during his panel on Sunday April 29. He was one of the coolest, most down-to-earth people I’ve ever seen grace the stage at the Calgary Expo – charming the audience with tales of the insane filming schedule for Lord of The Rings, which included picking up a scene that they had half-filmed — a full year from when they started it. One of your typical CON-questions happened to be recalling something funny while filming the movies, but Wood managed to scoop that low-ball off the floor and slamdunk it right on top of our Calgary Expo faces. While filming the sequence in the farmer’s field after Frodo and Sam meet up with Mary and Pippen, the four hobbits try to escape with some stolen vegetables, only to begin rolling down this large hill. While they were filming, Wood revealed that as soon as he began tumbling, that the initial moment of impact as he hit the ground, resulted in the most glorious contact fart, perhaps in the history of cinema. The rest is history. So the next time you’re watching The Fellowship of The Ring, I want you all to realise that Frodo farted and probably farted hard during the hill tumble scene. That is all.
Elijah Wood at Calgary Expo 2018 – Photo by Keven Skinner
Everybody loves a good fart joke. But that’s not all Elijah Wood talked about – he mentioned how upset he was about how there won’t be a third season for Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, to which the audience echoed his sadness. When asked about what the third season would have explored, Wood had to remain tight-lipped about it because he didn’t want to ruin Max Landis’ story, if it miraculously ever did eventually get to be told. What he did tease however vague it sounded, were even more drastic twists and turns with some very unexpected character developments that nobody could have predicted. Who knows — maybe some day we will see what could have been, whether or not on TV, maybe even in a comic series — you never know. Someone asked Wood if his character Todd would ever wind up in a romantic relationship with Dirk to which he said “No. But they would have remained the best of friends.” So — there’s always fan fiction, but that’s where that fantasy ends team. Sorry.
Tanner Zipchen and Elijah Wood – Photo by Keven Skinner
The most cringe-worthy moment of the panel was when moderator Tanner Zipchen (Cineplex Theaters Pre-Show Host) asked Wood what he thought about a certain character dying on Stranger Things season 2 after the two were chatting about various shows they were watching on TV, to which Wood replied, “I haven’t seen it yet.” Face palm, audience groans, zero spoiler warnings – Tanner WTF were you thinking brother? Haha. Ouch. But despite that near fatal panel killing error, Tanner managed to change the subject and nobody died from embarrassment that day. Elijah Wood was charming, super cool about exploring his older work which most people probably don’t want to do when they’re part of the most famous film trilogy of all time. Easily my top choice for panel of the weekend at this year’s Calgary Expo. Thanks Elijah for coming to Canada and making us all laugh about the serious problem that is — contact farts.