The Hobbit trilogy is finally complete, and we miss those pretty elves and dwarves already. Here’s where you can next spot your new and old faves now that their Middle-earth journey is done.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was released in cinemas this week, marking the end of Peter Jackson’s near-15 year reign over the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. The initial Lord of the Rings trilogy raised the bar in terms of a movie cast’s friendship having its very own fandom – they got matching tattoos, for God’s sake – and The Hobbit trilogy brought back a lot of our old favorites as well as adding plenty of new faces to Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth family. And now it’s time to say goodbye.
If you, like us, have developed an emotional attachment to the cast of The Hobbit and are already mourning the loss of them on your screen, here’s where you can next see 10 of The Hobbit’s brightest stars – and a little recommendation from their back catalogue to keep you going until all these new projects are released!
Warning: this piece contains spoilers for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Sir Ian McKellen – Gandalf
Oh, Sir Ian. You international treasure, you. Ian McKellen’s next big project is Mr. Holmes, a crime drama directed by Bill Condon. McKellen will portray a long-retired 93 year old Sherlock Holmes, living in the country with his housekeeper (Laura Linney), keeping bees and dealing with the deterioration of his brilliant mind. Mr. Holmes is based on the novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin and is due for release in 2015.
Sir Ian is also rumoured to be in talks to star alongside Chris Colfer in a Noel Coward biopic, and of course, Magneto may return in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Until then, check out his Oscar-nominated role in Gods and Monsters, or his version of Shakespeare’s Richard III – a role that Hobbit co-star Martin Freeman also took on earlier this year. For something a bit lighter, try Vicious, his snarky sitcom about an old gay couple.
Martin Freeman – Bilbo
Our Hobbit himself has a few things lined up for the near-future. In early 2015, he’ll star in The Eichmann Show, a BBC drama about the televising of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, and he’s also loosely attached to two interesting projects: Funny Cow, about the world of stand-up comedy, and The Taliban Shuffle, Tina Fey’s film based on a war journalist’s memoirs.
Obviously the news that we all want to hear about is Sherlock, but things are elusive as ever from that camp. The most recent update we have there is a picture of Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch in book-canon-appropriate clothes for a special not due for release until next Christmas, with the show’s fourth season most likely to air in 2016. If you want a bit of Martin Freeman in your stocking this holiday, pick up Love Actually or his lesser known Christmas flick, Nativity!.
Richard Armitage – Thorin
Richard Armitage as Thorin is arguably The Hobbit trilogy’s most impressive performance – he brought depth and honor to a character who, in the book, is stubborn, vain, and pretty much just driven by a desire for gold and treasure. Thorin in the movies is rather inspirational, but we’d expect nothing less from Armitage, whose reputation on stage and screen in the UK precedes him.
If you’re keen to follow his career, Armitage is currently filming Sleepwalker, a psychological thriller in which he plays a sleep researcher, and has completed a role as an ex-social worker in Urban and the Shed Crew, an adaptation of a non-fiction book about runaway children, gangs and inner city wastelands in Northern England. You’ll also be able to see his acclaimed 2014 stage performance in The Crucible at selected cinemas from February. If you’re harbouring a desire to watch Armitage being noble and waving a sword around some more, you can’t go wrong with the 2006 Robin Hood TV series in which he played antagonist/antihero Guy of Gisborne.
Aidan Turner – Kili
If watching “the sexy dwarf” Aidan Turner fall in love with an elf in The Hobbit gave you a slight inkling that he may be the new love of your life, let alone Tauriel’s, never fear. 2015 will see Turner take the leading role in Poldark, a TV series about a British officer returning home from the American Revolutionary War to find that his fiancee has casually married someone else.
If you need more of him right now, do yourself a favor and watch him star alongside Russell Tovey in the first three seasons of the horrendously underrated BBC supernatural drama Being Human. If funny, clever period drama is more your thing, seek out Desperate Romantics, in which Turner plays Pre-Raphaelite painter and terrible decision-maker Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Dean O’Gorman – Fili
There’s a reason why Peter Jackson cast two young, gorgeous and enigmatic actors to play Thorin’s little nephews when the rest of the dwarf company look like garden gnomes. It’s so you’d have all the feels when they both die tragically. Dean O’Gorman, a native New Zealander, was somewhat of an unknown to Hollywood before being cast in The Hobbit, but he’s clearly doing something right – he’s set to appear as Kirk Douglas in Trumbo, alongside the likes of Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren.
Trumbo is a biographical drama about Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter of Spartacus and Roman Holiday, and a victim of the Hollywood blacklisting era. It’ll be released in 2015, and it sounds like Oscar-bait already. If you want to check out O’Gorman’s earlier work, try The Almighty Johnsons, a New Zealand fantasy-drama about reincarnated Norse gods which also aired on SyFy.
Luke Evans – Bard
Luke Evans appeared in all three films of The Hobbit trilogy, as both Bard the Bowman and Bard’s ancestor Girion, adding a very human element to the cast among all the hobbits, wizards, elves and dwarves. Evans, who is Welsh, is a recognisable face and a longtime favorite of the British theatre, but he’s set to take his place on the world stage with a couple of huge upcoming projects.
High Rise is an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s novel about an insular society also starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons and Elisabeth Moss. There’s also the controversial remake of The Crow, in which Evans will star as Eric Draven, the same role in which Brandon Lee was killed while performing. You can check out Luke Evans in a couple of very differing past roles: small-town British rom-com Tamara Drewe, or as Apollo in Clash of the Titans.
Lee Pace – Thranduil
Where were you when you saw the first promo shots of Lee Pace’s Thranduil riding a moose and knew, in your soul, that you were not in the slightest bit prepared for whatever The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had to offer? Is that moment engraved on your brain? Maybe that’s just us. Oh well. We can’t promise any antlered steeds in Pace’s near future, but he is currently starring in Halt and Catch Fire, an AMC show about the 1980s computer revolution that will return with a second season in 2015, and he’ll guest star in an episode of The Mindy Project, so that’s almost as good as riding a moose.
On the big screen, he’s been cast in Revolt, a sci-fi drama about an alien invasion, and Icon, a biopic about cyclist Lance Armstrong and the journalist set on exposing him. If you’d like more of Lee Pace immediately, go directly to Pushing Daisies, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. You can, of course, also see him as Ronan in summer smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy.
Evangeline Lilly – Tauriel
Tauriel was one of the very few Middle-earth characters created by Peter Jackson, rather than originating in Tolkien’s novels and appendices. Evangeline Lilly did an admirable job of bringing this character to life and adding a much-needed weapon-wielding female element to the sausagefest that is The Hobbit trilogy – even if she did hate the love triangle aspect.
Fans of Lost will always remember Lilly as Kate, so if you were never on the Lost bandwagon and have been waiting for an opportunity to start that wild ride, here’s your big chance. As for the future, we’ll soon see her join the ranks of another huge franchise – the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically Ant-Man. Lilly is playing Hope Van Dyne, the daughter of original Ant-Man Hank Pym. Hope becomes a rather interesting supervillain in the comics, so keep your eye on her come July 2015.
Orlando Bloom – Legolas
Orlando Bloom will always hold a special place in the hearts of some Lord of the Rings fans, because this franchise made him. Most of the original LoTR cast had pretty well-established careers before taking part in this global franchise, but “Orli” was a true unknown – he auditioned for the much smaller role of Faramir, and was cast as Legolas two days after graduating from drama school. He has since sky-rocketed to A-Lister status, and 2014 saw him receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He’s been a part of this journey since day one, and it’s how we were introduced to him, so it’s especially weird to see him finally move on from Middle-earth.
But move on we must – Bloom stars alongside Anna Kendrick in Digging For Fire, currently slated for January 2015, and he’s also attached to the new Michael Apted thriller, Unlocked. If you want to delve into his back catalogue and check out some movies in which he doesn’t play a long-haired elf or a long-haired pirate, try Elizabethtown, The Good Doctor, Black Hawk Down, or the filmed production of his Romeo and Juliet on Broadway.
Cate Blanchett – Galadriel
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more regal lady than Cate Blanchett, so casting her as Galadriel was always one of the most inspired parts of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth world. With six Oscar nominations under her belt, Blanchett is never going to be short of high-quality film offers, and we’re so glad she had time to dig out her Elven ear-tips and return to this little fantasy franchise for a bit of light flirting with Gandalf.
In 2015, Blanchett can be seen in Disney’s live action Cinderella, in Terrence Malick’s surreal and glamorous Knight of Cups alongside Christian Bale, in the 1950s lesbian drama Carol, and in Truth, based on the memoir of a newsreader involved in the scandal about George W. Bush dodging the Vietnam draft. She’ll also star onstage in The Present, an adaptation of a Chekhov play by the Sydney Theatre Company. Pretty much every film of Cate Blanchett’s career is worth watching, so let’s pick a couple at random – Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, artistic Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, and Australian classic Oscar and Lucinda.