Sean Astin photobombed the same person twice, over two decades apart

Sean Astin in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — (Image credit: New Line Cinema)

You might think getting photobombed by Sean Astin would be a once in a lifetime event, but for one person, it's happened twice – 26 years apart.

Gabrielle Kerr posted about the double photobomb to Reddit, including both pictures featuring the Lord of the Rings star, and the story behind the unlikely coincidence (H/T People).

actor_sean_astin_photo_bombing_me_in_93_at_dc from r/nevertellmetheodds

"Back in '93 my dad got the hook up for one of the Clinton inaugural balls. Said hook up fell through and we wound up crashing the balls," Kerr wrote in a comment.

"My dad was in his tux and we were in our gowns and they just let us in! I think this was the MTV ball so the crowd was younger and lots of celebrities were there. While we waited for Clinton to make his appearance my dad took a picture of us. We had no idea Sean was standing there let alone he photobombed us until we developed the film."

That's enough of a story on its own, but a chance encounter in 2019 makes the whole thing even wilder.

"Flash forward 26 years I'm at Disneyland for the opening of Galaxy's Edge and guess who walks by?! I ask my hubby if I should try and show Sean the photo (which I had in my phone) and he said go for it," Kerr continued. "So I run after Sean and yell 'excuse me Sean, you photobombed me, do you want to see the picture?!'

"He stopped and said sure and while I pulled up the photo I give him the backstory. When he and his wife and daughter see the photo they were so excited. And then he says 'let's recreate it!'"

Kerr finished her tale on a mic-drop: "And that's how I was photobombed twice by Sean Astin."

If this story has got you in the mood for a trip back to Middle-earth, check out everything we know about the upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show on Amazon Prime Video.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.