Middle Earth has been pretty quiet lately. But there’s movement on the horizon with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug only 6 months away – 12 December. Expect a trailer soon. In the meantime, we get to feast our eyes on the first official image of Middle Earth newbie Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel.
Tauriel means “Daughter of Mirkwood” and she’s a true newbie as she doesn’t feature in the original book. She’s a new character created by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh for the films.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Lilly described her character: “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.”
As for a possible romance with Legolas (Orlando Bloom): “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.”
Lilly is also well aware that fans of the book may not take to Tauriel, saying “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are going to be people who will totally hate Tauriel, think that she shouldn’t be in the movie, that it’s a betrayal of Tolkien, and no matter what I do it won’t be right.” But she continues: “There will be everything between that and people who adore her and think it’s such a fun thing to have added to the film.”
Lilly definitely looks the part…what do you think? Excited for film two?
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Directed by Peter Jackson, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Luke Evans, Christopher Lee, Martin Freeman, Hugo Weaving, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Manu Bennett, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Aidan Turner, Andy Serkis, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Ian Holm, Graham McTavish, Dean O’Gorman, James Nesbitt, Sylvester McCoy, Ken Stott, Conan Stevens, William Kircher, Peter Hambleton, Mikael Persbrandt, Adam Brown, Jed Brophy, Stephen Hunter, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, John Bell, and Jeffrey Thomas.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens 12 December.
Source: EW via Slash Film
