With the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug less than six months away, the marketing machine is in full swing. We’ve already gotten a good look at the film with the spectacular teaser, which showed us what we can expect in the second part of the trilogy, as well as a teaser poster that, while a bit simplistic and reminiscent of other posters of late, also does a good job at teasing what’s to come.
Today, via Comic Book Movie and Empire Magazine, we have a new batch of behind the scenes stills as well as character images from the upcoming film. These include a picture of director Peter Jackson directing the infamous scene of the dwarves making their escape in barrels, and pictures of Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Tauriel (Evageline Lilly), and Thranduil (Lee Pace).
I’m particularly interested in the second film because, as it states in the Empire spread, this is where things start to get serious. In the next film, we will finally get to see Beorn the Shapeshifter, the big spider battle in Mirkwood, the daring escape of Bilbo and the Dwarves from the Mirkwood elves, The Necromancer, and, of course, Smaug the Dragon, who has taken over the Dwarves’ homeland of Erebor and their treasure along with it.
That’s not to say that the first film didn’t have its share of darkness with the goblins, Gollum, and orcs, but it looks as though the second film is going to get a whole lot darker. From what I’ve seen so far, it looks like it’s shaping up to be another amazing trip to Middle Earth.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, starring Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage, hits theaters on December 13th, 2013.
What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming film? Check out the images in the gallery below and let us know in the comments!
