Watch the Exciting First Trailer for 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug'

It's hard to believe that nearly a decade passed between The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, because it never really felt like they went away. A lot of that has to do with the legendary critical and box office success they achieved, keeping them firmly in our minds until audiences were brought back to Middle Earth last winter. With Jackson stretching the two-part story into a trilogy, and introducing new 48fps technology, 'An Unexpected Journey' was considered a disappointment by many, putting the sequel 'The Desolation of Smaug' in the unusual position of underdog.

As expected, the first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has arrived, a few days before it's attached to showing of Man of Steel. There are no solemn dwarf songs in this footage, instead it's about introducing us to the characters fans have been waiting anxiously for. We get a glimpse of the returning Orlando Bloom as the elf archer Legolas; Evangeline Lilly as his lover, Tauriel; Lee Pace as Thranduil the Elven King, and Luke Evans as the heroic Bard the Bowman. We finally get our best look at the dragon Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, the reason behind the journey undertaken by Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and his companions. It remains to be seen exactly how far Jackson is going to take this middle chapter in the story. Will the fight with Smaug carry over into the third film as a means of padding out a relatively slim story?

Overall the trailer gives the impression this one will have a great deal more action than before, but we'll have to wait until December 13th to see if that's really the case.


The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug (Trailer) by cinemur