Ha-ha said on Running Man that he turned down an offer tied to The Lord of the Rings because he could not step away from the show for about a month. The remark came on the 23rd, when the cast was opening a Director Kang race to deliver gifts to camera director Kang Chan-hee.
The comment instantly turned a routine opening into the episode’s biggest talking point. Before the race began, the production team said Haha had been offered an appearance in a Hollywood masterpiece, and he confirmed that the title was The Lord of the Rings. He said he had been asked to clear his schedule for about a month, a demand that collided with his Running Man commitment.
That is why the story has traveled beyond a variety-show aside. The cast on hand included Yoo Jae-seok, Ji Seok-jin, Kim Jong-guk, Song Ji-hyo, Yang Se-chan and Ji Ye-eun, but the focus quickly narrowed to Haha and the unusual offer he described. He said he was one of 12 friends and that he was involved as an Asian representative, giving the offer a scale and a framing that suggested more than a brief cameo.
Yoo Jae-seok tried to lighten the moment with a guess that Haha was a Hobbit, and the exchange kept circling the same unanswered point: what part, exactly, had been offered to him. The production team described it as a Hollywood love call, but the details stopped short of identifying the role, leaving the audience with the outline of a major opportunity and not the full map.
Haha did not hide how he felt about passing on it. He said he regretted refusing the appearance, even as he explained that the schedule clash left him no real choice. That friction is what makes the anecdote land: he was not dismissing the offer, but weighing a rare invitation against the practical demands of a show he has already committed to.
The episode also reinforced why the story spread so quickly. Running Man built the segment around a simple delivery race, but the opening turned into a surprise reveal about a Hollywood title that most viewers would never expect to be linked to the cast. The only thing still unclear is the one thing that would settle the curiosity: what role was on the table for Haha, and why did the offer run through him at all?
