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 as
Bifur...
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.