Joining Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis as returning Middle-Earth vets for The Hobbit will be Cate Blanchett, who it was announced today would be reprising her role of Galadriel, the Lady of Lothlorien. Perhaps she will be the narrator again too and let's hope so... it's impossible to underestimate the effect her voice had on heightening the emotion of Peter Jackson's movies. New Line/Warner Bros have also spilled that Scottish character actor Ken Stott will be playing the Dwarf Lord Balin and that Swedish actor Michael Persbrandt joins the film as the shape-shifter Beorn, a role which under Guillermo del Toro's direction would have gone to Ron Perlman. Also newly added are rookie Brit actor Ryan Gage (cameo's on Doctors/Holby City) as Drogo Baggins... Jed Brophy, a Peter Jackson vet who was the memorable face behind the Orcs Snaga and Sharku in The Lord of the Rings and who also worked on King Kong is Nori... William Kircher, who has appeared in a few things but you won't know him from Adam asBifur... The cast is now enormours... .... but there's still answers to be had. Will the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Hugo Weaving and others from LOTR also be afforded a return in The Hobbit? There's probably more chance of it now with Cate Blanchett's reprisal as Galadriel does not appear in J.R.R. Tolkien novel, presumably everything is fair game. Will the previously discussedDavid Tennant, Saorise Ronan, Stephen Fry and Bill Nighy (As the voice of Smaug) also appear? The Hobbits Part I and Part II will be filmed in 3D and RED camera's when shooting kicks-off in February.