The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies - 10 Questions We Need Answering

2. Will We See Balin Reclaim Moria?

One of the most consistent (and in our eyes totally unfair) criticisms of The Return Of The King is the sheer number of endings. After the Ring is destroyed and good has triumphed over evil there's still another fifteen minutes of loose end tying, from Aragorn becoming King to Sam becoming a family man. If you were one of those complainers get ready; there's doubt Jackson will stuff the ending his final Hobbit with the same number of arse-numbing diversions. There is, after all, a lot more for The Battle Of The Five Armies to settle than its print counterpart. Positioning The Hobbit as an all-out prequel to The Lord Of The Rings (instead of the basic predecessor the book was) means plenty of plot points need some resolution to appease fans/avoid confusion for general audiences. So expect to see Mordor rising and the dwarves settling into their old home. One possible ending we'd love to see, however, veers to the unlikely side - the dwarves reclaiming of Moria. Following on from the events at the Lonely Mountain, the mines are taken back by a group of dwarves led by Balin, Thorin's white-bearded second-in-command. We know from The Fellowship Of The Ring that peace doesn't last too long (it's once again overran by orcs come The Lord Of The Rings), but seeing the dwarves take up residence in the mines would serve to make that scene more resonant. Jackson has already brought big battles from outside the timeline of The Hobbit (the original Battle of Moria for one) in the films, so one reaching closer to Rings would be cool to see.