Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan spots references to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in-game

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They’re taking the hobbits to the island-gard

Animal Crossing New Horizons
(Image credit: Nintendo)

An eagle-eyed Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan has spotted references to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in Nintendo’s 2020 hit game.

Twitter user @karenyhan spotted some of the film's iconic scenes on one of the TVs that players can display in their homes. 

Frodo Baggins himself, Elijah Wood, even replied to the tweet, which is probably as close to confirmation that this is an intentional reference to the film that we’ll ever get. Elijah who is a well-known Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan has actively played the game since its release last year, and has even connected with fans online for good turnip prices.

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The TVs, which come in a variety of different colors and sizes, play various indistinct tv shows throughout the day. From movies to game shows, soap operas, news, sports, and even live performances, the only thing fans weren’t expecting to recognize is a well-known film franchise. 

According to another Twitter user @CandiPhoenixesA, who replied to the thread, this reference may have gotten into the game due to “one of the crew members working on the game was a big “Lord of the Rings” fan and got the ok to sneak in the movie reference.” 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has several potential references to other popular culture like the ‘Monster Statue’ item that looks very similar to Godzilla, the ‘Icey Dress’ outfit which resembles Elsa’s dress in Disney’s Frozen, as well as other official Nintendo items like the Nintendo Switch, and the Ring-con from Ring Fit Adventure. There was even a hint to the game receiving some kind of Mario update in March in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Festivale trailer. 

Since Nintendo has never commented on the inclusion of these unofficial references though, we’ll just have to decide for ourselves if The Lord of the Rings actually exists inside the Animal Crossing: New Horizons realm. 

To get the most out of your island, take a look at our Animal Crossing: New Horizons tips

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.