3. A Whole Bunch Of Tolkien References (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Ian McKellen is doing pretty well for himself, having starred in a couple of the most successful, geeky film trilogies of all time. He almost didn't win the role of Gandalf in The Lord Of The Rings, with his schedule clashing with shooting for the first in Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptations. Singer kindly filmed all his scenes super quickly so he could bugger off to New Zealand for months. There's actually a whole lot of Tolkien references in the X-Men movies. In the comics, even, there's a villain who names himself Sauron after the conqueror of Middle Earth. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, meanwhile, briefly features a truck with a sticker bearing the quote "Not all who wander are lost". Which, in case you didn't catch it, is a paraphrasing of Aragorn's motto from the Lord Of The Rings. Because, believe it or not, the people who make the X-Men movies are also huge dorks.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
