The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but EW already has the first promotional images from the next two films in this completely unnecessary trilogy.
The first image, seen above, is from The Desolation of Smaug, which will be in theaters on December 13th of next year. Main character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is chillin’ on a heap of gold, and given the timid look on his face, I’d figure that this is from the scene where he infiltrates the lair of the dragon, Smaug (Who is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). Given the title, we can expect that the dwarf company’s efforts to retake their mountain from the dragon will form the plot of the movie.
The second image, below, is from There and Back Again, which comes out July 18th, 2014. In it, we see Orlando Bloom as Legolas for the first time again (he wasn’t in the book), chatting it up with Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans). These two each represent one of two participating sides in the Battle of the Five Armies, which occupies very little space in the book but which apparently will be the focus of the third film, along with whatever new stuff they’ve made up to pad out space.
The first movie comes out December 14th. We’ll see how it is.
