Part Three of ‘The Hobbit’ Gets a New Name

Since The Hobbit films have a tremendous amount of VFX and CG animation in them, we occasionally discuss them on our site. The latest news to come from the film’s production team is a new title for the third and final chapter in the series. Instead of The Hobbit: There and Back Again as previously announced, it’s now going to be called The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Peter Jackson wrote about the title change on his Facebook page:

“Inside Information…Our journey to make The Hobbit Trilogy has been in some ways like Bilbo’s own, with hidden paths revealing their secrets to us as we’ve gone along. ‘There and Back Again’ felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo’s arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film. But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced—after all, Bilbo has already arrived ‘there’ in the Desolation of Smaug.’

 

“When we did the premiere trip late last year, I had a quiet conversation with the studio about the idea of revisiting the title. We decided to keep an open mind until a cut of the film was ready to look at. We reached that point last week, and after viewing the movie, we all agreed there is now one title that feels completely appropriate.

 

“And so: ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ it is.  As Professor Tolkien intended, ‘There and Back Again’ encompasses Bilbo’s entire adventure, so don’t be surprised if you see it used on a future box-set of all three movies.”

 

Jackson also discussed in the post that he is working on an extended cut of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He’s added over 25 minutes of new scenes (as if the original cut wasn’t long enough…but I digress) with new original music by composer Howard Shore.

With all of the promotions coming for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and this new XXL version of The Desolation of Smaug, Jackson stated that “It’ll be a fun year!”

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opens in U.S. theaters in 3D on December 17th, 2014.