The 27th three-day Kansas City Planet Comicon was bigger and better than ever this year. With thousands of attendees, many wearing intensely detailed outfits depicting characters from their favorite book series, film series, or comic books, it was one for the record books.
At the convention, there was all manner of Comicon fun in the exhibit area, besides just crowd watching: the cosplay area, rows of comic book artists doing live drawings, fans lined up for personal moment with celebrities taking pictures and getting autographs, and presentations both in conference rooms and in the roomy 1,800-seat Grand Ballroom, where such iconic actors such as William Shatner (who starred in “Star Trek” television series and movies), Priscilla Presley (as steward of Elvis Presley’s legacy), and Jason Isaacs (who played a wizard in the “Harry Potter” movie series and Captain Hook in the “Peter Pan” movie) spoke and took questions from the audience.
A sold out standing-room-only presentation in the Grand Hall featured two actors who played hobbits in the three “Lord of the Rings” movies: Elijah Wood (“Frodo Baggins”), the main character, and Sean Astin (“Samwise Gamgee”), Frodo’s loyal and courageous friend who protects him during their quest to save all hobbits in The Shire.
Those movies have made nearly $1 billion so far (in initial releases and re-releases), according to Box Office Mojo.
Fans delighted in hearing production stories and personal anecdotes from the personable actors/hobbits. The first story was about when the two met. “I had just come down from a wig fitting at a hotel, still in a state of awe about working with this wig genius,” Astin says. “I stepped into the lobby, and here comes Elijah, all excited. He goes ‘Hey!hey!hey!’ We hug. I ask him if he is ready for this, and he goes ‘Yep!’ As it turns out, he was very ready for it.”
Astin also played the mayor of the Shire in the movies, but in real life was elected president of Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG/AFTRA) in September, 2025. Is working as an actor playing mayor managing other hobbits easier than working with actors as president of SAG/AFTRA? “It’s identical,” Astin says. “Hobbits and actors are both going to do what they want to do.”
Films and television shows, depending on what they are, can really reveal you to yourself, and reveal you to the audience, Astin says. “So because of Sam’s character as loyal and courageous, when I was elected president of SAG/AFTRA, I know that part of the confidence that the membership who voted for me feels is because of my Sam character. I love to use the qualities that character exemplifies. I’d like to try and honor those with my actions and with who I am.”
“There is a lot of Sam in you,” Wood says, displaying a deep respect of his colleague as the audience oohed and awed. “And there is a lot of Frodo in me. My favorite Frodo quote is ‘I know what I must do, but I’m afraid to do it.’ It is such a moment of vulnerability, realizing what Frodo has truly ahead of him. He accepts this sort of journey.”
Wood says that he was totally and profoundly changed by the experience of living in New Zealand where the films were shot, and making some of the best friends of his life. “It was unlike any experience before or since,” he says. “I was 18 when I went to New Zealand. I was 22 when we were all finished, at the end of that four year journey. So it was an incredibly profound growing experience for me. It can’t be replicated. It was in its time. It was extraordinary.”
