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Peter Jackson Gives Final Hobbit a New Title

By Jack Gattanella on Fri 25 Apr, 2014

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The third and final installment in Peter Jackson’s prequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, has a new title.  Jackson announced the change on his Facebook page yesterday.  It will be titled, “The Battle of the Five Armies.”

The film is due for release in time for Christmas, as with the past two films An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug.  Originally, when it was announced that there would be three films (and before this there were announced two films based on the original J.R.R. Tolkien text), the title was There and Back Again.  Jackson explained the reasoning for his change having largely to do with this change from two to three films.  And this of course in enough time for the marketing companies to prepare the materials for the film’s campaign (usually for a blockbuster of this sort one will see posters and even a teaser as early as this summer):

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“’There and Back Again” felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo’s arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film. But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced—after all, Bilbo has already arrived “there” in the “Desolation of Smaug”.  Jackson went on to explain he had a conversation with the studio about possibly changing the title last December when Smaug premiered, but decided to wait until a cut of this third movie was roughly edited to decide.  Last week, the decision was made for certain.

However, Jackson also went on to say that the original ‘There and Back Again’ would possibly be used as an all-encompassing title on a DVD box-set of the three films.  “It will soon be time to step into the light,” Jackson added. “Expect to see and hear much about The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in the coming months.”  He finished his post with a smaller announcement for an extended DVD cut of ‘Smaug’ this year.

The Battle of the Five Armies is due for release this December 17th.  You excited about the new title?  Can’t wait for part 3?  Or not?  Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @.

Jack is a graduate of film studies from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, and is currently seeking his MFA in Screenwriting at the Academy of Art. He is a screen-writer, film critic, director, and editor, and has also done camera-work for web-series, doccumentaries and shorts. Currently Jack is seeking distribution for his feature film drama, “Green Eyes“, co-produced a sci-fi feature, Audrey Lorea‘s ‘Heaven is Now.‘, as well as a comedy pilot called ‘Losers’ which is being shopped around to networks. He is also a contributing writer for the sites FocusFilm.co.uk, Film Forward, and some of his other reviews can be found on his blogcinetarium.blogspot.com. Jack is a vociferous fan of films and will watch anything interesting, foreign and domestic. He survives by his wife, a political science professor, and currently resides in Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA.
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