Home » 6 reasons we’re excited for The Hobbit: There And Back Again

Yes, I know it’s not out until December, but that doesn’t stop us getting excited for the final part of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, There And Back Again. Whilst An Unexpected Journey took a bit of a critical mauling (and it wasn’t helped by the 48fps debate), most critics agreed The Desolation of Smaug moved back towards the brilliance of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Smaug also saw the trilogy’s tone shift to darker territory (Bilbo’s reaction to almost losing the Ring being a case in point), and I suspect There And Back Again will take us even darker. So, what can we look forward to in the final film? Warning: spoilers ahead!

1. The Battle of Five Armies:

We haven’t really had any epic battles yet in the Hobbit films – certainly nothing on the level of Helm’s Deep or even the Pelennor Fields. But that will change with There And Back Again as the Dwarves join forces with the Elves, Men and Eagles to battle the Goblins and Wargs. Jackson’s been signalling something’s coming with the expansion of the storyline following Thorin and Lurtz the main Orc in the first two films. In the book, the five armies battle is a major plotline deciding the fate of a number of key characters. We know Jackson can handle epic fights, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what he does with this, especially with the new technology available to him in the 10 years since LOTR.

2. Dain Ironfoot

We’ll finally get a look at Thorin’s cousin Dain in There And Back Again. He’s not a major character and you’re probably wondering why I’ve included him. Billy Connolly, that’s why. The Scottish actor joins the cast as the Lord of the Dwarves of the Iron Hills. Connolly’s revealed in interviews that his Dain has a Mohawk and tattoos on his head. I can’t wait to see him.

3. Gandalf v The Necromancer

At the end of Smaug, we found Gandalf being held prisoner by the Necromancer in Dol Guldur. Now we all know Gandalf knows how to get out of tricky situations (the Balrog anyone?), so it’s hopefully no surprise to anyone that we’ll see the wily wizard escape his capture and join forces with the White Council to fight the forces of evil. Whilst this doesn’t feature hugely in the book, I expect to see it in the film. Will we see Saruman in this sequence? Or even Galadriel? We know she’s a feisty Elf and the scenes between her and Gandalf seem to point to some kind of collaboration. Wouldn’t it be great to see Cate Blanchett kick some Orc butt?

4. The destiny of Thorin, Bard and Tauriel…

I’m trying not to include too many spoilers here, but fans of the book know there are big things coming for Thorin and Bard. I’m intrigued to see how Jackson deals with the destiny of the Dwarf and Man. And what about Tauriel? Will she survive what is to come? We know she’s not mentioned at all in LOTR, could this be a bad omen?

5. Cameos

There have been so many reports that Jackson wants to use the final film to bridge the timeline between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. In Tolkien’s story there’s a 60 year gap. So, will we see characters from LOTR during those years? I would love to see some of Aragorn’s backstory and would be even more delighted to see some of the Hobbits get small cameos – who wouldn’t enjoy seeing Sam, Merry and Pippin again?

6. Bilbo

It seems strange to write a piece about The Hobbit without mentioning the Hobbit himself, but in the final part of Tolkien’s story Bilbo isn’t featured as heavily as some of the other characters (although he does still have a very big part to play). I doubt Jackson will allow his key character to sit on the periphery. As I mentioned, Martin Freeman has already started to take Bilbo to some dark places as the Ring begins to exert its power over him. How far will we see him go in the final film?

So, now there’s another 11 months to wait to find out what thrills Jackson has in store for his, and our, final trip to Middle Earth. I can’t quite believe it’ll be our last journey into the world of Hobbits, wizards and Elves. Peter, have you read the Silmarillion?

Jenny Priestley

I'm an entertainment writer and broadcaster with an obvious love of all things film and TV. And a slight obsession with the Lord Of The Rings, The West Wing and Steven Gerrard.

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  • Lurtz is a) an Uruk-Hai, not an Orc and b) from The Lord of the Rings, not the Hobbit. You likely mean Azog (although perhaps Bolg?)

    • You’re right, but to be fair, the Uruk-Hai ARE orcs.

      “The word ‘uruk’ of the Black Speech…was applied as a rule only to the great soldier-orcs that at this time issued from Mordor and Isengard.” (ROTK Appendix F)

    • I’ve read that Aragorn was a child at the time that the events in The Hobbit take place, around 10 years old.

  • Regarding the last question of the article, I can say that without any doubt Peter will be in charge of Silmarillion but now until 2020 or something like that… Who wants to bet ?

    • I’ll take that bet.

      Christopher Tolkien personally owns the copyright to all of his father’s remaining works, manuscripts, and papers – not the TE and not any other family members. He can hold a bonfire in the backyard or stipulate that the film rights are never to be sold in his will. Also, as co-author/editor of The Silmarillion, the copyright will not expire until at least 70 years after his death.

      Considering CT’s very negative reaction to both trilogies, PJ’s refusal to give him any artistic control over the films, and the multiple lawsuits the TE has had to file against WB, TABA is undoubtedly the last ME movie we will see made in our lifetimes.

      Don’t believe me? Check out his interview with Le Monde last year: that doesn’t sound like a man who wants anything else to do with Hollywood. And it’s not like the family needs the cash.

  • Tauriel isn’t mentioned in LOTR because she is a character that was added to the film of The Hobbit. She’s not originally in ANY of the books. Not that I’m complaining. I love the addition of her character to the story. =)

  • . “The Battle of Five Armies:

    We haven’t really had any epic battles yet in the Hobbit films – certainly nothing on the level of Helm’s Deep or even the Pelennor Fields. But that will change with There And Back Again as the Dwarves join forces with the Elves, Men and Eagles to battle the Goblins and Wargs. Jackson’s been signalling something’s coming with the expansion of the storyline following Thorin and Lurtz the main Orc in the first two films. In the book, the five armies battle is a major plotline deciding the fate of a number of key characters. We know Jackson can handle epic fights, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what he does with this, especially with the new technology available to him in the 10 years since LOTR.”

    Do you mean Azog… instead of Lurtz….

  • As long what happens in the books happens on screen thats fine with me. Honestly the last movie thoroughly disappointed me…Of course I am a Tolkien Canon Nazi, whose read the books a million times..So I except for artistic lisences and canon bending from PJ that will infuriate me…As for the Similliarian I pray that never EVER happens…Please leave it alone…There is no story in the Simmillarion and plus everyone dies…Very very depressing…And one more thing I do not want to see ANY character or characters that are not in the book in the movie..Aragorn is off in Rohan or Gondor or off with the Rangers at this point…leave him be.the young hobbits arent even born yet..Even Frodo and Sam havent been born yet…And they are 50 at the time of the War of the Ring…Pippin certainly isnt born as he was 34 and Merry was also 34..So NO HOBBITS Except for Biblo please..

    • I cannot image Peter Jackson adding Elrond to the Battle of Five Armies and hopefully his battle armor concepts were for his attack in the lands surrounding Rivendell in Hobbit AUJ only. But if he’s going to include him –somehow– it would be kind of neat to see Elrond’s twin sons by his side in the style of the much disputed elves-at-Helm’s-Deep-Two-Towers style. I don’t know where Gil Galad is during this timeline and he didn’t have a lot of screen time in LOTR FOTR.

      As for the only way they could include Merry, Pippin, Sam and Frodo would be if PJ actually does the rumored “book ends” with this trilogy and finishes with old Bilbo recounting the story to them somewhere around the same timeline as his 111th Birthday Party day that he started Hobbit AUJ with.

      I agree that Aragorn should be left out of this one though. There’s a great not-for-profit fan made movie called ‘Born of Hope” that recounts his beginnings already. We could however see Arwen by her grandmother’s side in Lothlorien as she was staying with her at the time of The Hobbit (I believe).

  • We don’t have a single clue , BUT ONE , of how will Gandalf escape Necromancer aka Sauron.

    This tiny little clue is that he sent Radagast to contact Galadriel to save him?

  • I can’t wait for the third film! Let me start by saying I’m not a purist and I very much understand that these films are Peter Jackson & team’s vision. I am a HUGE Tolkien and Peter Jackson geek and I read just about anything and everything I can get my hands on about these films. I just had to share a few comments because I believe some of them can only add to the excitement of the final part of this trilogy:

    These comments are to the “reasons we’re excited for The Hobbit: There and Back Again” 1, 2, 3 & 6:

    1. “Jackson’s been signalling something’s coming with the expansion of the storyline following Thorin and Lurtz the main Orc in the first two films.” should read: “Jackson’s been signalling something’s coming with the expansion of the storyline following Thorin’S ANTAGONIST, AZOG THE DEFILER the PALE Orc in the first two films.” And maybe the mention of his son BOLG that we see in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Bolg is mentioned in the book. He leads his army of orcs and wolves to get his vengeance on Thorin for **spoilers** having killed his father at the Battle of Azanulbizar instead of be-handing him like he does in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie.

    2. I cannot wait to see Billy Connolly as Dain! Hopefully he’ll look just as bada** as Dwalin did in the flashback scenes with his mohawk. I’ve read an article that Billy was joking that his character rides into battle on the back of a giant boar! There is believability there because in the i0s/Android/Facebook game (The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth) if you play the dwarven race some of the troops you can train are Boar Riders and Heavy Boar Riders!

    3. I can’t say that Gandalf will be joined by The White Council at Dol Guldur to fight the Necromancer but Sir Christopher Lee says in his YouTube 2013 Christmas message at around 6:58 mark (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEhvKl9_5bg) that he’s in the third film and there’s “a lot of me in it” and he does a “tremendous amount of fighting. Sword play…”. In the book and apprendices Gandalf doesn’t get captured and Dol Guldur is empty and the Necromancer gone but The White Council does lay the old fortress to waste. That confrontation would make for some pretty great cinematics though.

    6. I have read somewhere that Bilbo **spoilers** will not be knocked unconscious in the film as he is in the book. That he will have a role to play.

    I have complete faith in Peter Jackson that whatever he does will great! I realize that many people say these films are too long but for me, more Middle-Earth on scene the better! These are after all the last of the Tolkien films being made until a very long time. Christopher Tolkien is holding on tooth and nail to the rights of The Silmarillion and besides I believe that book would make a better tv series –with the right budget– Game of Thrones style!

  • Yes the silmarilian would be awesome as a next step like the bible’s Old Testament and before Adam and Eve