7. New Characters: Beorn The Skinchanger
Beorn is a pretty odd character who pops up in The Hobbit. Like Tom Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings, Beorn's appearance doesn't really add a huge amount to driving the plot forward, aside from building up more of the world of Middle Earth. As the last of the skin-changers, Beorn is huge man who is able to transform himself into a bear and does so nightly. In the book, Gandalf and the dwarves stop by his house for a re-supply and to get some directions. There's some nice back-story, but that's basically it until Beorn pops back up in the final battle. Like Tom Bombadil, it would have been a logical step for Jackson to cut his role out of the film. However, instead of doing that, it looks like Beorn is going to be featured in the film, which is pretty cool because, as I mentioned above, he's a man who can turn into a bear. I personally can't wait to see what they do with this and if they're going to make him a larger part of the story, like they did with Radagast. Also, hopefully the whizz-kids at Weta are going to give us a transformation scene to blow Twilight's denim-busting little wolves out of the water.