Since the release of the breath-taking trailer last week, fans have been sounding off (and getting really excited) about the similarities between what we’ve seen from The Hobbit and the massively acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now director Peter Jackson has stepped up to talk about the differences between the two sets of films.

It looks like we should prepare ourselves for something very different from The Lord of the Rings with The Hobbit, but Peter Jackson explained to TotalFilm why this doesn’t need to be a bad thing.

Peter Jackson on how The Hobbit differs from The Lord of the Rings:

JACKSON: “The Hobbit is very much a children’s book and The Lord of the Rings is something else; it’s not really aimed at children at all. I realized the characters of the dwarves are the difference. Their energy and disdain of anything politically correct brings a new kind of spirit to it. And that’s why I thought, OK, this could be fun!”

If you though Joss Whedon had it tough spreading screentime amongst his ensemble cast, Peter Jackson has it even tougher. Here, Jackson briefly comments on that challenge:

JACKSON: “That was something I worried about. I imagined 13 guys with long hair and beards and I thought, ‘How are we ever going to know which dwarf is which? It’s an ensemble from hell really. I thought nine members of the Fellowship was a problem; but here, with Bilbo and Gandalf, we’ve got 15. It’s working out fine though. The dwarves give it a kind of childish, comedic quality that gives us a very different tone from The Lord of the Rings.”

Jackson wants audiences to know that despite some differences, he’s striving to keep the same feel from the LOTR trilogy:

JACKSON: “I want it to seem like we’ve gone back on location into Middle-earth; that these two movies feel like they belong at the beginning of the other three. We’re the same filmmakers going into the same world.”

Talking about original director Guillermo del Toro, Total Film reports that Jackson stated that the “films do retain some aspects del Toro’s style and DNA, but that they have largely been overshadowed by Jackson’s own attempts to replicate his approach to The Lord of the Rings ten years ago.”

Jackson’s wife and writing partner Fran Walsh reportedly stated that the second movie will be primarily focused with “war, madness and dragon rage.” She explains:

FRAN WALSH: “We always saw The Hobbit more in the golden light of a fairytale. It’s more playful. But by the time you get to the end, Tolkien is writing himself into that place where he can begin that epic journey of writing LOTR, which took, as he put it, his life’s blood. All those heavier, darker themes which are so prevalent in the later trilogy start to come into play.”

So what do you think? Were you hoping for a darker Hobbit or were you happy to hear that Jackson plans to remain faithful to the source material? Pixar has proven time and time again that children’s tales can pack as much power as an Oscar-winning drama, so do you think Jackson will be able to craft a cinematic masterpiece out of the classic children’s book? Are you more excited for the second half of the tale which promises to be darker and more brooding?