"An unexpected journey" has become an unexpected trilogy.
"Hobbit" director Peter Jackson announced this morning that there will be a third installment of "The Lord of the Rings" prequel, according to Variety.
Rumors were swirling last week about the possibility of Jackson splitting his "Hobbit" film into three separate films.
At first, we were a bit wary of the news—how can one book be split into three films?
However, Jackson made it known at Comic-Con he had more than enough extra footage to warrant one more film. That, plus Jackson revealed he'd use another 125 pages of notes from an appendices J.R.R. Tolkien included in the third "Lord of the Rings" novel, "The Return of The King."
We couldn't imagine he wouldn't be on board for a third film unless he was absolutely sure he had the material to warrant movie number three.
We're just hoping the road to the ring, and eventually dragon Smaug, doesn't feel too dragged out. We wouldn't mind added time with Sméagol / Gollum, though.
The third film will be released summer 2014. "The Hobbit: An Expected Journey," the first in the trilogy, hits theaters December 14.
Update: Fusible found a few domain names registered by MarkMonitor, the same group who manages the domains for thehobbitanunexpectedjourney.com and thehobbitthereandbackagain.com. Could these new domain names "Desolation of Smaug" and "Riddles in the Dark" suggest names to the sequels?
http://whois.domaintools.com/desolationofsmaug.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/riddlesindark.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/thedesolationofsmaug.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/thehobbitdesolationofsmaug.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/thehobbitriddlesindark.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/thehobbitthedesolationofsmaug.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/thehobbittheriddlesinthedark.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/theriddlesinthedark.com
