From what we’re hearing, Warner might plan to have a trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug attached to Man of Steel when the Superman story opens in theaters on June 14. Makes sense, right? Use one massive blockbuster to help tease your next massive blockbuster, even thought the second Hobbit movie doesn’t reach theaters until December. If you need more clues that Warner has Hobbit news up its sleeve, the studio released an official Smaug photo to EW.com (make sure you click over there to see a high-res version!), but who is that beautiful archer?
That would be the oft-talked about but not-really-seen Tauriel, a new character added to the narrative who will be played by Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly. And when we say “new,” we mean that Tolkien never wrote about a character with that name, so Jackson conceived her for his trilogy, alone. On the character, Lilly tells EW an awful lot, revealing:
“She’s slightly reckless and totally ruthless and doesn’t hesitate to kill.Tauriel is the head of the Elven Guard. She’s a Sylvan Elf, which means she’s of a much lower order than the elves we all became acquainted with in The Lord of the Rings. She doesn’t hold the same kind of status that Arwen or Galadriel or Elrond or Legolas do — she’s much more lowly. She sort of goes against the social order of the elves a little bit.She will definitely have a love story. I can’t give away too much about it. It’s not a huge focus but it is there and it is important and it does drive Tauriel and her story and her actions.
A love story? Perhaps with a fellow archer. Of course, that means most of us automatically will hope for the return of Orlando Bloom’s hero, Legolas. On that topic, Lilly, hesitates, stating:
Tauriel’s relationship with Legolas is significant. They’ve known each other since they were children, and Legolas’ dad, [Elven king] Thrandruil, has a soft spot for Tauriel and sees something very special in her. So if you grow up side by side, and your dad has a very special spot in his heart for this young woman who’s a fantastic warrior, I think it’s hard not to notice her. … That’s probably as much as I can say.”
Believe me, that’s plenty! More than enough to whet our Hobbit whistles, and more than enough to convince me that actual footage from Jackson’s second Hobbit film will be ahead of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel next week … and possibly online sooner than that.
