See Stephen Colbert's cameo in 'The Hobbit'

No one deserved a Hobbit cameo more than Stephen Colbert, the man who Peter Jackson called the biggest Tolkien geek he’d ever met. This is a man, after all, who dedicated an entire week of The Colbert Report to the first Hobbit movie last year, who visited the sequel’s set in New Zealand. It’s almost like he was auditioning for a role!

Well, mission accomplished, Stephen.

Long rumored — Colbert recently described it as a Where’s Waldo? role — the late-night star pops up in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He plays a hooded spy in Laketown. It’s difficult to recognize him at first, but then, when he breaks into a Sondheim song, there’s no denying it’s Colbert.

Okay, so he doesn’t break out into song. (Wasted opportunity.) But it’s undeniably Colbert. A GIF on Reddit reveals Colbert’s calculated thespian turn, with a twist of malevolence.