The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey trailer takes us back to Middle-earth

With just under a year to go before the arrival of the first installment of Peter Jackson's two-part Lord of the Rings prequel - and ten years after the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - the filmmaker has taken us back to Middle-earth with the first official trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which was released online in the early hours of this morning along with a brand new poster from the film.

It's been a long road for The Hobbit film adaptation. Jackson first came on board as executive producer four years ago, only for MGM's financial troubles to cause a number of delays that eventually led to the departure of the original director, Guillermo del Toro, who shares scriptwriting credits with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. However, principal photography finally got underway this past March with back-to-back shoots for both The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and now with the arrival of the first trailer, the countdown to the arrival of the $500m-budgeted epic has officially begun.

The trailer sees LOTR alumni Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Ian Holm (Bilbo) reprising their roles, but apart from Gandalf the focus is clearly on the newcomers to the cast. Taking centre stage of course is Martin Freeman as the younger Bilbo Baggins, who is joined by Richard Amitage (Thorin Oakenshield) and the entire Company of Dwarves - Aidan Turner (Kili), Dean O'Gorman (Fili), Graham McTavish (Dwalin), Ken Stott (Balin), Mark Hadlow (Dori), Jed Brophy (Nori), Adam Brown (Ori), John Callen (Oin), Peter Hambleton (Gloin), William Kircher (Bifur), James Nesbitt (Bofur) and Stephen Hunter (Bombur). Take a look here...


Along with those mentioned above, the two-part prequel also features an extensive ensemble cast that includes Christopher Lee (Saruman), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug), Lee Pace (Thranduil), Mikael Persbrandt (Beorn), Stephen Fry (Master of Lake-town), Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman), Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown), Jeffrey Thomas (Thror), Barry Humphries (The Great Golblin), Mike Mizrahi (Thrain II) and Bret McKenzie (Lindir).

An Unexpected Journey will hit cinemas on December 14th, 2012, while There And Back Again is slated for release the following year on December 13th, 2013.