'The Hobbit' Has Its Final Cast Members

Given the phenomenon that "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was, the expectations for the film version of "The Hobbit" are understandably high. Fans have been clamoring for any news about the currently filming project. Casting announcements first started coming in the latter half of last year and have been steadily trickling in ever since. Between returning cast members from "The Lord of the Rings" (including some that don't even appear in "The Hobbit" novel,) thirteen dwarves, elves, wizards, and the titular hobbit there have been plenty of parts to cast. There were a few key roles that still had yet to be cast, until now. Deadline.com announced the casting of Luke Evans as Bard and also Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Smaug.

Luke Evans is a relatively young and fairly unknown actor. He has had small roles in a number of big movies but nothing that audiences would remember. That may change later this year when he appears as one of the titular "Three Musketeers." For "The Hobbit," director Peter Jackson has cast Evans as Bard the Bowman. Bilbo Baggins and his dwarven companions meet the grim faced guardsman on the way to the Lonely Mountain. The character factors in heavily to how events unfold regarding the dragon Smaug, and is rumored to have an even more expanded role in the film than in the novel. At 32 years old Welsh born Evans seems a little bit young for the role. It brings back memories of Jackson initially casting the youthful Stuart Townsend as Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings" before realizing he should have cast older and replacing the actor with Viggo Mortensen. That's unlikely in this case, as it's difficult to imagine Jackson would set himself up for the same issue twice.

Benedict Cumberbatch is a star whose career is on the rise. He is best known for playing the lead role in BBC's modern day set "Sherlock" series. Smaug is the dragon who has taken over the Lonely Mountain and driven out the dwarves, a mighty beast driven by avarice for the dwarven gold kept within the mountain. Cumberbatch is an interesting choice for Smaug, most rumors had pointed towards an older actor such as Bill Nighy. It's possible, and even likely that Cumberbatch's voice will be put through some post production filters to give it a larger more booming quality. Oddly, the Deadline.com article says that Cumberbatch will do motion capture for the part of Smaug. This seems strange given that the dragon is not a humanoid character, so the idea of the creature being based off a human's movements doesn't quite make sense. It may be that Cumberbatch will give some degree of physical performance to be used as reference, but a full on motion capture performance such as Andy Serkis does for Gollum seems unlikely.

Interestingly it seems that Cumberbatch will be pulling double duty in "The Hobbit." The article mentions him providing the voice of the Necromancer as well. In the novel the Necromancer is a passing reference to something that Gandalf leaves the group to investigate, but is not actually detailed in the book at all. Jackson had already indicated that this section of the story would be expanded on, using J.R.R. Tolkien's extensive notes in the book's appendices for reference. The Necromancer is in fact an early manifestation of the evil Sauron, best remembered as a giant eye in "The Lord of the Rings." The inclusion of this character reaffirms Jackson's intend to tie "The Hobbit" in with his blockbuster trilogy as much as he possible can.

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