Like they did last year, Air New Zealand has themed another one of their planes for The Hobbit film series. This year’s features our best look at the sequel’s titular dragon Smaug.
Smaug lives within the Lonely Mountain which is the focal point of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as Bilbo and the dwarves attempt to retrieve a special artifact.
Up until now we’ve only gotten small glimpses of the dragon’s eyes. His appearance on Air New Zealand’s Boeing 777 aircraft offers a full look:
Click the first image to see a larger version.
The plane is currently in route to Los Angeles from New Zealand, just in time for the film’s red carpet premiere.
A bit of viral marketing in Romania offered a separate look at Smaug, but this is the first time we’re seeing the dragon’s correct color and full body. Check out a recent TV spot for the film in which you can glimpse Smaug in motion.
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is the voice of the dragon Smaug and offered to do motion capture so that Peter Jackson and his team could put Cumberbatch’s physical acting skills into the dragon.
The highly-anticipated sequel continues the story which began in An Unexpected Journey. “The company continues East, encountering along the way the skin-changer Beorn and a swarm of giant Spiders in the treacherous forest of Mirkwood,” reads WB’s synopsis for the movie. “After escaping capture by the dangerous Wood-elves, the Dwarves journey to Lake-town, and finally to the Lonely Mountain itself, where they must face the greatest danger of all.”
The Desolation of Smaug is the second film in Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy and will open in theaters December 13. Part 3, titled There and Back Again, will be released next December. An Unexpected Journey’s Extended Edition just hit DVD/Blu-ray in November.