Sean Astin and Elijah Wood reveal that the four original Hobbits share their New York Times mini crossword times on a group chat every day

For those who haven't kept up with what the OG The Lord of the Rings hobbits have been up to-- they've been reunited, travelling on tour as a group. Though it's been a hot minute (almost a decade) since they've all been together, Elijah Wood has said, "the reality is, everyone that engaged in making those films, we are linked for life, regardless of whether we get the wonderful opportunity to get to spend time together or see each other. We're intrinsically linked… years will have gone by, and you'll see them, and it's like no time has passed."

But that doesn't mean that the hobbits haven't been keeping in touch. At this year's LA Comic Con Lord of the Rings panel, Sean Astin shared with fans that the four hobbits—that's Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd, are on a hobbit group text, and that they share their New York Times Mini Crossword scores every day.

"It's so fun, and it's so satisfying, and when you get stuck, it's the most maddening thing," Wood says about the actors' shared hobby. For those who aren't familiar with the New York Times mini, it is a daily mini 5x5 (7x7 on Saturdays) crossword edited by Joel Fagliano which you can play for free online.

For the hobbit crossword group, it's a goal of theirs to reach a day where all of them finish the puzzle under a minute, though that goal may be more difficult than expected. Wood's puzzle completion times are usually 1:01-1:30, but Astin says that his scores tend to be around the 4-8 minute time range (though he may have been a bit facetious). However, Astin has finished the puzzle under a minute twice before (he said he couldn't focus on anything else those days), and practice makes perfect, so who knows? Maybe that exciting day will come soon.

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