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Will you follow me one last time?” — Thorin Oakenshield
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies represents the culmination of director/co-writer/producer Peter Jackson’s 16-year journey to bring to life the richly layered universe of Middle-earth conjured nearly a century ago by JRR Tolkien in his literary masterworks The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again was first published in 1937, having emerged from the revered author, poet, university professor and philologist’s imagination as bedtime stories for his children. In the 17 years that followed, Tolkien continued to develop, expand and enrich the complex mythology of Middle-earth to produce its sprawling, apocalyptic conclusion, The Lord of the Rings. Collectively, the author’s towering modern myth has had a seismic impact on world culture, becoming among the best-selling novels ever written, and sparking the imaginations of generations of readers all over the world.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS TO THE HOBBIT
As Jackson prepares to sweep audiences back to Middle-earth one last time, he reflects that throughout his epic filmmaking odyssey through Middle-earth, his true north has always remained his passion for the artistic legacy of Tolkien and his own desire to see it brought to vibrant, visceral life on the big screen.
As with all three films in The Hobbit trilogy, Jackson crafted the screenplay for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies with his longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, along with Guillermo del Toro. Boyens, who is also a co-producer of the trilogy, observes that, for the collaborators, it felt as if The Lord of the Rings films were meant to be made first before turning back the clock to complete the tale. “In many ways, The Hobbit films are better for us having gone through that experience and established this incredible cast,” she says. “It also gave us the broader canvas against which The Hobbit films truly unfold, and a deeper understanding of how this little adventure leads directly into that vast, world-changing mythology that informs The Lord of the Rings films.”
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| “There is a lot of suspense and tension, triumph as well as tragedy, as the various agendas and personal conflicts between the characters come to a head. I think it’s the most powerful and emotional of the three Hobbit films, and honours each character with whom we’ve gone on this journey” — director Peter Jackson on the final film |
forces of darkness and light
The tale of the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who embarks on a wondrous and dangerous adventure in the Wild with the Wizard Gandalf and the Company of Dwarves, grew in the telling to birth the resonant themes that are woven throughout the Tolkien canon — the bonds of friendship, the nature of honour and sacrifice, the corruption of wealth and power, and the quiet courage of the unlikeliest of heroes, which may hold even the greatest forces of evil at bay.
But, for Tolkien himself, the novel as published did not tell the whole story. Within 125 pages of notes included in the final book of The Lord of the Rings, the author mapped out in detail the forces of darkness and light at work in Middle-earth at the time of The Hobbit, which provides vital connective tissue between Bilbo’s adventure and the legacy his nephew, Frodo Baggins, will ultimately inherit. “Professor Tolkien left us a gift in this addendum to The Lord of the Rings,” says Walsh, who is also among the trilogy’s producers. “It came from his need to grow this world and tell more of the story, which gave us an organic way to expand the tale through all three films, while honouring what Professor Tolkien intended.”
The untold stories in the appendices also provided Jackson with a rich palette that would enable him to begin The Hobbit trilogy with the brighter, more innocent tone of the novel and gradually move into a darker emotional climate as the adventure gives way to all-out war. “The epic battle at the centre of this film is the climax of three movies’ worth of storylines, which all continue to play out even as armies are clashing on the battlefield,” Jackson says. “There is a lot of suspense and tension, triumph as well as tragedy, as the various agendas and personal conflicts between the characters come to a head. Everything we’ve seen — who these characters are, what each of them is fighting for — leads to this moment. I think it’s the most powerful and emotional of the three Hobbit films, and honours each character with whom we’ve gone on this journey.”
a catAclysmic conclusion
The film also sets the stage for the Middle-earth audiences will encounter 60 years in its future, when the next trilogy begins with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Jackson observes: “We come to understand how Bilbo’s adventure fits within the entire story and the true stakes of The Battle of the Five Armies, not just for the characters but for all of Middle-earth. Tolkien worked his way up, and we worked our way down to blend the two trilogies, which has been both a challenge and a lot of fun in terms of weaving in threads that will continue into The Lord of the Rings films.”
As the final chapter of one epic journey and provocative prelude to the next, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies serves as the powerful fulcrum of the entire Middle-earth legend. “We’ve been aware that people may not watch these films in the order that they were made 20 years into the future, but will start at the beginning and watch straight through to the end,” Jackson reflects. “As we’ve made The Hobbit films, we’ve consciously progressed the tone to the place where, hopefully, the audience will feel that they’ve gone on that journey into The Fellowship of the Ring, and, ultimately, to the cataclysmic conclusion of Middle-earth in The Return of the King. Our hope is that for future generations, all six films will be experienced as part of a single continuous saga.”
HO, HOBBIT!
This is Peter Jackson’s sixth film taking place in Middle-earth.
Cate Blanchett, who plays Galadriel in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, has been on set for just eight days, despite being part of all three Hobbit films.
Many members of the cast took home props from the film when filming ended — Martin Freeman kept his sword and prosthetic ears, while Richard Armitage kept the original Orcrist-sword. Lee Pace kept his elven-sword, which now occupies pride of place in his umbrella stand!
The Hobbit franchise was initially slated to be only two films. When the decision was made to split the story into three films, the two films became the first and last films and the ending from the first film became the beginning of the now second film, and the beginning of the third film became the end of the second film.
