Every time I report the latest casting news for The Hobbit it seems like we get another round of casting news a few days later. So perhaps this will be the final major casting news for The Hobbit. Or not. Anyway…
Deadline reports that Evangeline Lilly (TV’s Lost, The Hurt Locker) has been cast in the role of Tauriel, a new character who is an elf in the Woodland kingdom where the dwarves become captives of the Elvenking Thranduil, also known as the father of Legolas. This is an original character which did not appear in the original novel, so I can’t imagine it being that big of a role. After all, most fans seem to be okay with director Peter Jackson adding characters just as long as, well, they don’t really do anything to significantly alter the story.
The second, and much more fascinating, casting announcement is that Barry Humphries — the Australian comedian best known for playing Dame Edna in countless appearances — will play The Great Goblin, a sinister orc king who captures Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves as they try to make their way through the Misty Mountains. Though almost eighty years old, Humphries will do an awesome job as The Great Goblin via motion capture, who seems to be more of a wizened old king anyway than a spry warrior.
Humphries will likely only appear in the first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is set for a December 14, 2012 release. Lilly will mostly (or perhaps entirely) be appearing in the second, The Hobbit: There and Back Again. which is set for a December 13, 2013 release.
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