While Team Hobbit might have preferred that the Star Wars bods wait a day before flooding social media with the new film’s title, a big promo for The Battle Of The Five Armies was always going to win attention. Settle in then, for the big main trailer featuring battle bats, speeches, Saruman in action and more speeches.
This finale finds the Dwarves, led by Richard Armitage’s Thorin Oakenshield, reclaiming the vast wealth of their mountain home of Erebor, but all is definitely not going to go smoothly. In taking back the mountain, they unleashed the terrifying dragon Smaug, who has flown off to attack the humans of the nearby Lake-town after realising that they helped the dwarves.
That’s not all that Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and his comrades have to worry about, because an ancient enemy has returned in force to Middle-earth. The clash with Smaug is just part of the battle, with the Necromancer (AKA Sauron) unleashing his Orc hordes against our heroes. Bilbo and the rest must fight for their lives as five great armies go to war. Can the forces of good defeat the massed power of evil? OK, smartarse, we know the** Lord Of The Rings** trilogy still happens…
With Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lilly, Aidan Turner, James Nesbitt and many more among the cast, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies lands on December 12. And pick up the next issue of Empire (out near the end of this month) for more Hobbity goodness.