The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug has released an epic first trailer online, and you can watch it right here.
Following directly on from the events of An Unexpected Journey , the film picks up with Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the Company of Dwarves en route to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their homeland.
It’s not as easy as it sounds though, with their homeland currently inhabited by a rather fearsome dragon known as Smaug (and played, in mo-cap form, by Benedict Cumberbatch).
If that wasn’t trouble enough, the band of travellers still have enormo-Orc Azog the Defiler on their tail, and they have a whole bunch of Woodland Elves to contend with, not to mention the creepy machinations of the Necromancer (Cumberbatch, on double duty).
The Hobbit: Part 2 introduces Evangeline Lilly’s newly created character, warrior Elf Tauriel, and Luke Evans’ steely Bard the Bowman.
Watch the trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug now:
Mightily impressive stuff, eh? It seems as though they’re still holding back Smaug for a full reveal in the finished film, but Desolation looks to have no shortage of action (and could win back the cynics who thought Part 1’s slender story was spread a little too thinly).
But, with the combination of that heady, Lord Of The Rings nostalgia, and the huge-scale set-pieces, we should be in for a Christmas 2013 treat. And it looks like Benedict Cumberbatch might have two of 2013’s best villains under his belt…
Directed by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug opens in the UK on 13 December 2013.
