Benedict Cumberbatch is usually pretty good at being sneaky, to the point that we still don't really know the identity of the character he'll be playing in the upcoming Star Trek sequel. But now the actor who seems to be everywhere, and really is everywhere, has slipped a very intriguing detail about another one of his huge upcoming projects: The Hobbit. You won't actually see Cumberbatch in the trilogy of films, since he's playing Smaug the Dragon, but here's some info straight from the horse's mouth about when you'll get to see him:
I think my eye might open at the end of the first film and then you’ll get the rest of me in the second.
That comes from Bleeding Cool, where they picked up on a comment Cumberbatch made while doing press for an upcoming BBC series Parade's End. And from the way he's talking, it sounds like he was thinking of there only being two Hobbit movies, which was the case until a few weeks ago, when Peter Jackson confirmed they'll be making a third film. So who knows if Cumberbatch's story is still valid, or if we'll somehow see Smaug's appearance in the middle of the second movie now-- after all, he's the dragon guarding the gold at the end of the journey for Bilbo and his band of dwarves, so it wouldn't make sense for him to appear a third of the way through the story.
And yet, Cumberbatch's version of the story makes sense, even if you're just looking at how Gollum was introduced in Fellowship of the Ring, teased briefly before taking center stage in the next film. And the trick of showing just a character's eye before smash cutting to the end credits has occurred in two notable places lately, at the end of Avatar and in the last Twilight installment, Breaking Dawn Part 1. Maybe Jackson is ready to make it an official trend by doing it a third time?
Either way, this is at least one Hobbit mystery that will be answered sooner than later-- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set for release December 14. Click here to learn much more about it.
