Guessing About The Second and Third Hobbit Films!

OK, having seen and enjoyed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (click here for my review), it’s time to start speculating about the second and third films in Peter Jackson’s three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel!

Re-reading The Hobbit last month, I guessed that the first film would end following the Dwarves’ escape from the Misty Mountains.  At the end of chapter six, that part of the story ends with the line: “So ended the adventure of the Misty Mountains.”  That seemed like a pretty definitive stopping point in the story, and so I thought it would make a logical break-point between the films.  I am pleased to see that I guessed correctly!

So what will film two depict?  Where will film two end and film three begin?

Well, I suppose that it is logical to surmise that film two will include Beorn, the confrontation with the spiders, and all the business of the Dawrves being captured by the elves and escaping in barrels down the river.  I can also see film two including material drawn from the Lord of the Rings’ appendices, as well as new material, depicting the White Council’s confrontation with the Nercromancer at Dol Guldur.  (In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens says that we’ll get to see the battle mentioned in the appendices at Dol Guldur featuring elves, giant spiders, orcs, and wargs.  “One of the main protagonists in that is Galadriel,” Boyens says.  “We get to go there.  We get to see it.”)  That same interview also hints, quite logically, that the films will flesh out the character of Bard, who becomes very significant at the end of the book but doesn’t get much back-story in the original novel.  It makes sense for Peter Jackson and co. to take the time to better develop this pivotal character, and I expect we’ll see a chunk of that material in film two.

So where will film two end?  Seeing as how the new schedule for the trilogy of films is for film three to be released only six months after film two, rather than our having to wait a full year, I suspect that means that film two ends on a cliffhanger.  Why else would they alter the schedule that we have seen to this point?  (All of the Lord of the Rings films were released a year apart from one another, and The Desolation of Smaug is being released a year after An Unexpected Journey.) The only reason I can see for changing that release pattern is if film two ends on a whopper of a cliffhanger.  (Dipping a bit into history, I recall that Back to the Future Part II and The Matrix Reloaded both ended on cliffhangers and both had their follow-up films released only about six months later.)  So this suggests to me that the Dwarves will arrive at the Misty Mountain, but the film will end with them (and/or the people of Lake-town) in serious jeopardy from the awakened and attacking Smaug.

But I also have another, slightly crazier notion.

With the second film titled The Desolation of Smaug, part of me wonders if film two won’t take us all the way through to the death of Smaug.  That seems insane, because isn’t that the end of the story?  Well, no.  Smaug dies about fifty pages before the end of the book, and following his death suddenly we are shifted into a much larger tale of a confrontation between men, dwarves, elves, and orcs.  It’s a surprisingly meaty last bit of story, and quite a lot of the events leading up to and during “The War of Five Armies” that only take a sentence or two to be described in the book could easily take far longer to actually depict on screen.  I could easily see Peter Jackson flesh out The War of Five Armies into the entire third film, including a lengthy epilogue depicting the events of the book’s final chapter, Bilbo’s return trip to the Shire.

Is it crazy to think that Smaug, the main villain of The Hobbit, won’t appear at all in the final Hobbit film??  I guess we’ll see in about a year…!  (If I am right about this, by the way, you’d all better brace yourselves for a big “I told you so”…)