With less than three months to go before we return to Middle-earth for the final instalment of The Hobbit trilogy, Peter Jackson has been talking to Total Film about the upcoming The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and specifically how he’s expanding the source material in order to provide a suitably epic climax to his Lord of the Rings prequel.
“We’re developing more story with the elves and with Gandalf. We’re developing the character of Bard the Bowman. We’re able to expand what was there, bring in a little bit extra to the mythology and open it up a bit. What we’re trying to do is have a lot of that conflict and resolution happen during the course of the battle, so it doesn’t just become all action. There’s still a plot with the characters to follow, even though they’re surrounded by fighting trolls and orcs and things.”
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is set for release on December 12th in the UK and December 17th in North America, with a cast that includes Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, with Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom, John Bell, Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Dean O’Gorman, Mikael Persbrandt and Aidan Turner. Watch the first trailer here.
Originally published September 28, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
