Looks like those dwarves and that Hobbit are taking the long road in the “back again” section of their journey. New Line has announced that There And Back Again, the third film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, will now hit cinemas on December 17, 2014.

The film was previously slotted to appear on July 18 of that year, which raised eyebrows given that the Tolkien films have always arrived just before Christmas as a sort of early present from Peter Jackson and co. And no, the delay is a calculated release shift, not Pete locking himself in the editing facility to get some much-needed kip.

So while this means we will have to wait that bit longer for the third and final Hobbit outing, it’s probably a good move by the studio, since it gets the film away from competing with X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

There And Back Again finds our heroes dealing with a massive battle, more trouble from orcs and a new dark threat coming to power. The movie stars Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and approximately 17,000 more actors. 

As for The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, that’s still on course to land on December 13 this year. Assuming Smaug decides he’s ready. He’s a picky one, that scaly git.