Yesterday, director Peter Jackson held a live Q&A event to coincide with the releae of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, where he answered fan questions about the new trilogy and teased a lot of details in regards to the next two films. The session was open only for those who had a code from their purchased copy of the film (of which I purchased last Tuesday) and featured a number of appearances from the stars of the film, including Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, and Lee Pace, as well as stars from THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, including Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, and Dominick Monaghan, (and a surprise appearance by Stephen Colbert) all giving their thoughts or asking questions to the director.
The director teased art from the Elvish stronghold of Thranduil’s realm in Mirkwood, which looks amazing just on paper, and showed off a ton of set footage, showing a lot of Legolas (Bloom) and the new character Tauriel (Evangeline Lily) in action. Tauriel is a new character to the series, who was not created by author J.R.R. Tolkien and Jackson was enthused about her inclusion in the film, which he talked about over footage of her kicking a lot of orc ass.
We’re quite excited about the storyline we have created for Tauriel. As you can see, she’s not an Elf Guard to be messed with.
There was a lot of behind-the-scenes footage of Lake Town, where we first meet Stephen Fry‘s Master of Lake Town and Luke Evan’s Bard the Bowman. Evans revealed that he’d be back on set in June for reshoots, so it seems that THE HOBBIT trilogy is far from complete.
Aside from the bevy of behind-the-scenes stuff shown, Jackson also revealed a scene from THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, where Gandalf and Radagast the Brown investigate Dol Goldur, an abandoned crypt where it is revealed that it has been opened “from the inside.” It’s a pretty spooky scene, actually, and really plays up the evil elements of the series, which were hinted at with the necromancer from the first film (and which Jackson confirms here, will be back).
Jackson wrapped up the session with the promise of a trailer this summer and the continuation of his excellent video blogs (for which he noted this as kind of the first one). Overall, Jackson really made ample use of the time he spent for the live session and it was one of the few that was absolutely worth the investment to check out. After being completely surprised by THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, I am say that the sequel(s) are now at the top of my must-see list.
Below you’ll find some screencaps from the event, which may or may not last. Either way, based on the session alone, I think there’s more than reasonable cause to be excited for another trip to Middle Earth.
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG hits theaters on December 13, 2013.