Middle-Earth On Film: A Visual History

Just like The Two Towers, The Desolation Of Smaug wasn't part of the original plan for its trilogy. Unlike the second The Lord Of The Rings, however, Desolation didn't exist until well into post-production - the decision was made less than six months before the release of An Unexpected Journey.

The original split in the duology was going to come after the barrel sequence, which here forms the lynchpin of the second act. The big draw this time around was less about seeing Middle-Earth again, and more the new; it marked the debut of the series' dragon design.