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When was the first time you watched The Lord of the Rings? Did you catch it in theaters or did you watch it for the first time streaming on your phone, as so many movies are watched today? For Samwise Gamgee actor Sean Astin, the first time his kids watched a Lord of the Rings movie was when it came up on television halfway through the movie. Oh yeah, and it was the third movie in the trilogy too.

Astin regaled a crowd of fans with the funny story about his kids finally getting around to watching one of his biggest movies during the Hobbits panel at the recent LA Comic Con.

It all started a few years ago when Astin was filming Stranger Things season 2 in Atlanta and his family came to visit him. Astin and his wife and daughters Elizabeth and Bella were watching TV in their hotel room when a familiar movie showed up.

Here's how Astin tells it: "We were in the hotel and we turned on the television and it was on TNT. So we watched the third film with commercials. They cut stuff out, it's terrible. But because they hadn't seen the first two, and we were coming in halfway into it..." Astin was then interrupted by a horrified Elijah Wood asking, "They hadn't seen the first two? They watched the TNT version of the end of Return of the King?" Wood seemed incredulous about the whole situation. "It wasn't like we planned it" Astin replied humorously.

Of course as a parent watching a child watching your big project for the first time ever, stakes seemed rather high. Astin's daughters seemed like they were into the movie, so after the movie ended, Astin couldn't wait to see what they thought. Astin shared, "Elizabeth is looking at me and giving me side eye, and I ask ' Well, what do you think?'"

Elizabeth Astin replied in shock, "Dad - you're like the main guy."

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you from a Lord of the Rings reading guide, a Lord of the Rings watch guide, details on the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, a full the Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch, how the OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat, and the true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.