Peter Jackson's facebook announced two more castings: Evangeline Lilly as an elf (thank goodness no romantic plot with Legolas! ) and Barry Humphries as the Goblin King... he also confirmed Bard and Smaug

Peter Jackson's facebook announced two more castings: Evangeline Lilly as an elf (thank goodness no romantic plot with Legolas! ) and Barry Humphries as the Goblin King... he also confirmed Bard and Smaug

Evangeline Lilly, huh? Interesting. I wonder what kind of elf she'll make. I haven't seen her in anything. So far I've only known her as an old girlfriend of Dom Monaghan. It'll be nice seeing her act, and kind of ironic it'll be in a movie related to LOTR, where Dom played Merry.

From what it said on PJ's FB note, it sounds like the Goblin King will be another Motion Capture character.

~Riella

Oh! I had missed Barry Humphries as the Goblin King. That's cool. I know him as the voice of Bruce in Finding Nemo. So how many cast members are there left? Dain, Bolg, The bodyguard of Bolg, The eagles? Other characters that haven't been announced yet... ?

Also, if Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Smaug and the Necromancer, has anyone thought of the possibility that Jackson might make Smaug and the Necromancer the same... only the viewers don't know it at first? Like as some kind of surprise twist?

Kind of like John Rhys Davies made Gimli and Treebeard the same character, or Sala Baker making Sauron and Uruk the same character, or Shane Rangi making the Witch King of Angmar and the Harad Leader riding the Oliphant the same character....?
No, it never crossed my mind that they'd be the same character til you said something. However, I was surprised they didn't bring back the guy who voiced Sauron in the LotR films. Alan Howard I believe.

Okay, for all of us who were tossed between Rickman and Cumberbatch for Smaug, get a load of this!

Honestly, whenever I hear Benedict's voice, I almost melt, if I can be so bold. And I have felt this way since I first heard him speak in Amazing Grace. It really is so rich and beautiful (at anytime, but especially compared with the giggly, squeaky-like guys in that audio clip ). I think he will make one awesome Smaug!

@ Jo's video.

I was hoping Cumberbatch was voicing Smaug ever since I heard that Martin Freeman leaked the news that he was cast for something.

Not thrilled about the casting of Evangeline Lilly. I never thought she was one of the stronger actors on LOST and I loathed her character on the show by the end of the series. Hopefully I'll be able to separate my Kate hatred from her elf character.

Not thrilled about the casting of Evangeline Lilly. I never thought she was one of the stronger actors on LOST and I loathed her character on the show by the end of the series. Hopefully I'll be able to separate my Kate hatred from her elf character.

I never hated Evangeline Lily in LOST, but the whole love triangle really started to get annoying near the end.
My only worry about Evangeline Lilly being cast is that I might see her as Kate instead of an elf.

As far as Peter Jackson adding new characters, I'm not worried.
Peter Jackson in my opinion did an amazing job on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I have no reason to doubt him now.
I think a lot of these new characters will play a very, very small role.
And if I recall correctly, I've seen characters that have been named, that have hardly any screen time, sometimes not even say a word on screen.
An example of this is the recent Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, they gave two of the mermaids names, one was only on screen a few moments, the other played a major role in the movie.
So I wouldn't worry.

Torn posted a rather interesting link...

Visual Spoilers Alert:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/06/23/45382-ew-com-hobbit-first-look/

He definitely looks like a younger version of Bilbo in LotR.

First pictures!! *happy dance*

Yep, I give my fan stamp of approval. The first picture of Bilbo cracks me up.

Ditto the happy dance! Love the pictures, especially the first one. Those looks of the dwarves in the background are A-1! And Bilbo is simply Bilbo ... a solid reflection of a younger Ian Holm. Love it! Just seeing that beloved Bag End warms the cockles of my heart ... and my furry feet.

I love the first picture. The dwarfs look great. I'm not sure about Bilbo yet. I can't call a good image of the other one to my head right now. Any ideas what Bilbo is reading?

I saw the picture of Bilbo and thought, "Hey! That looks a bit like Sam!" I think it's the fact that he's in his shirtsleeves.

Twigs, could it be a list of everything auctioned off from Bag End before he gets back?

Ah, that could be, Mel! Or ... his Burglar contract. It certainly is not the map.

Yeah, that's what I thought of, his Burglar contract from the Dwarves. (Arg! I'm gonna have to start remembering to spell dwarves instead of dwarfs again )

If so (and I'm strongly leaning this way), that looks like quite the contract! And the way the dwarves are studying him so intently would fit that idea.

Such a long contract. But yeah, that does seem more likely, considering the fact that the dwarves are all there.