7. Dain of the Iron Hills
Dwarves are awesome. This is a simple fact, but it also seems to be true that the more we see of them, the less awesome they become. At least as far as Jackson's interpretation goes. Gimli seemed pretty bad-ass when we first saw him in
The Fellowship of the Ring, but by the time we get to
The Two Towers, he's been the butt of a few too many short jokes for us to find him quite so compelling. Dain, a cousin of Thorin's to the north, shows up just long enough to play a major role in the climactic battle of the piece, giving him a Big Damn Hero moment and just enough time to do all sorts of cool dwarven stuff without over-staying his welcome. He also represents what might be a slightly different culture for these people than we've previously seen will Dain and his army come across like the dwarves we're familiar with, or will they be slightly more Irish compared to Gimli's broad riff on Scots. Either way, Dain is being played by Billy Connolly (
Boondock Saints), who has if nothing else proven to be an immensely enjoyable character actor, so however he's written Dain should be great fun to watch.