I’m pretty sure everyone already knows about this, but for those who haven’t been keeping score Pete & Co have decided to extend The Hobbit out to three films: “The Unexpected Journey” 2012, “The Desolation of Smaug” 2013, and “There and Back Again” 2014. All other grips aside the titles seem decent enough, but “Desolation of Smaug” seems a bit narrow and.. desolate. It seems a number of domain names were registered, on suggesting the title may have been “Riddles in the Dark.” I like this title quite a bit more. Alternative titles may or may not have included “Put a Ring on It”, “He Slays Dragons”, and “Honey I’m Home”

Brandon points out…

the reason the Hobbit is going to be expanded is that the Tolkein estate only ever licensed two of his works for film/television: Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Jackson is expanding The Hobbit with a whole bunch of things talked about in the appendix to Return of the King because until Christopher Tolkein dies that’s all the movies they’ll get to make.

So we’re getting things like the fight against the Necromancer which were only mentioned in The Hobbit but expanded upon later.

All fair points, and definitely something to look forward to. I will certainly be going to see these films just like I did the “Lord of the Rings.” I don’t begrudge anyone for taking liberties while telling a story, as long as the story is well told. It’s a tradition that is eons old. Still, I don’t think too many people expected this to be a trilogy!