It seems as if pseudo-Conservative talk show pundit and comedian Stephen Colbert may be joining the cast of J.R.R.Tolkien's beloved characters in Peter Jackson's upcoming The Hobbit trilogy.  This is completely unconfirmed and more for fun speculation at this point, but Colbert talked about his visit to The Hobbit set in a recent interview and neither confirmed nor denied a possible cameo.  He did confess to being a Tolkien fan, however, and if that enthusiasm proved enough to sway Jackson, there's already a precedent set for a Colbert cameo. Hit the jump to see what Colbert had to say.

[Update: THR confirms that Colbert will indeed be making a cameo in The Hobbit, but he won't appear in this fall's An Unexpected Journey so keep an eye out for Colbert in The Desolation of Smaug and/or There and Back Again.]

Here's the quote (both verbal and non-verbal, if that's a thing) from the interview with Colbert (via Empire):

"I flew out and watched them shoot some scenes and went to some locations. I saw a 25-minute cut, and it was amazing. Jackson knows I’m a big fan of the films."

When asked if he would be included in the films, he responded:

"Could be."

Not much to go on considering how clever Colbert is.  After all, his alter-ego on The Colbert Report uses acerbic wit and sarcasm with enough conviction to pass as a staunch conservative.

Let's just presume that Colbert will be in the movie(s).  What character would you expect him to play? A fellow dwarf or an elegant elf (he's got the ear thing going on...) or a boring human? Perhaps he'll side with the goblins and be covered under so much prosthetic make-up as to be unrecognizable.  Either way, it wouldn't be the first time a celebrity made a cameo in a Hobbit film.  Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords had a small part in Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and will actually be returning for the Hobbit trilogy, possibly alongside (or fighting against) Colbert.