Peter Jackson opted out of any Comic Con appearances at all this year, stating that he has to continue working on the next two Hobbit films to make sure they get all the attention they deserve. (Considering that Martin Freeman only just finished his filming as Bilbo, it’s probably best to leave Jackson in New Zealand.) But TheOneRing.net, the premiere Lord of the Rings fan site, hosted their own panel and had some interesting tidbits and speculation to share!
According to information given at the panel, Beorn’s house will be the very first stop in The Desolation of Smaug. There was also talk of Bard the Bowman, and how his backstory will likely be fleshed out for the audience.
The upcoming appearance of more elves—namely Legolas, Tauriel and Legolas’ father Thranduil—in the next film continues to excite fans, and glimpses of them in clips got big cheers from the room. It would seem that the rumored crush between Kili (you know, the hot but mysteriously un-bearded drawf) and Tauriel is looking more likely, though the panelists hoped that it would be more in the vein of Gimli’s pining for Galadriel than an actual relationship of any kind.
In awesome news, however, it looks like Galadriel might be taking up the sword in the next film—she might appear in battle scenes!
And on a strange alternate-universe note, it would seem that Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor and Radigast the Brown in the first Hobbit film) was seriously considered for the part of Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy before Ian Holm ended up with the role. It’s not exactly a shock when you remember that Peter Jackson is something of a Seventh Doctor devotee—he reportedly has McCoy’s costume from the show in his personal collection—but it’s strange now to imagine anyone other than Holm in those films.
More will undoubtedly appear over the weekend over at The One Ring.net, so keep an eye on them!
The place for a Galadriel-in-battle scene was in LotR: instead of inventing elven help at Helm’s Deep, PJ could have shown the extent of the War of the Ring—how Rivendell and Lothlorien were under attack and siege.
Um, if somebody makes a replica of the sword she uses I might need to buy it.
@1. jcsalomon
Yes, I agree. Galadriel took the battle to the enemy and basically tore down Dol Guldur, don’t shove her all over the place. I did not ever watch the 3rd movie after the horrible lore decisions made in the 2nd and I’ve not watched Hobbit, nor will I because the book is perfect. I learned my lesson.
Oh dear God, please tell me the Kili/Tauriel thing is a JOKE. The whole point/poignancy of the Galadriel/Gimli (which wasn’t romantic, of course) was that it was such a novel thing.
Oh, and one other thing. I already am not a huge fan of the idea of adding Tauriel, but if they are going to add a female character, why does it have to be a romance plot? Can’t she do something else? I actually have nothing against romance plots, it just seems rather cliche.
1. jcsalomon
&
3. DougL
If she’s included in the battle against the Necromancer, I’m okay with it; didn’t The White Council (mark 2) specifically exist to contest Dol Gulder & didn’t they succeed?
4&5. Lisamarie
I’m with you; if you wanna add a lady who kicks butt, just have her kick butt, not try to recapitulate the tension of a previous film or reduce it to romance.
I dont mind romance! I have a broad taste in films, I love romantic comedies almost as much as epic fantasy or SF, so this movie basically has it all! Who would mind a little romance.. Come on… It will probably not be a major plot thing… Kili is cute and Tauriel is used to hanging out with those very metro elves… Who wouldnt grab that chance… Its just awesome to enhance how the different races in Middle Earth should view eachother more like persons and not ‘dwarfs’, ‘elves’ and so on.. this being a very important lesson in LotR too… I dont think romance diminishes her role, the strong female role, lessen or feminize (did I really say that!) the plot or anything… It might make the audience more emotionally involved with the characters, which is something the Hobbit really needs… Bring it on!
Darket, I agree with you in theory – it’s not that I think strong women can never have romances and all that, or that it can’t be well done. BUT, I have a feeling it’s going to be rather paint-by-the-numbers and feel just kind of tacked on because nobody really knows what to do with female characters.
And I’m with you on the themes – but I do think that Gimli and Galadriel’s relationship (which was not romantic), and even Gimli and Legolas’s relationship was supposed to be very novel. Which is not to say there couldn’t have been other close dwarf/elf relationships we never heard about – maybe they’ll find some way to show this was an influence to Legolas down the road? Although I’m not sure how I feel about that either.
Your comment about Kili and the Elves did make me chuckle though :)