First Hobbit: There & Back Again Image!

**The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey **is now mere days from release. But with that film wrapped, signed, sealed and delivered, Peter Jackson’s mind has switched to looking ahead. “Aha!” we hear you say. “To The Desolation Of Smaug!” Nope… Even further. He’s just put the first picture from The Hobbit: There And Back Again into the wild via EW.

The image is likely to generate plenty of interest as it features everyone’s favourite elf (well, maybe after Bret Mackenzie’s Figwit)… Legolas!

Yes, Orlando Bloom is back in the wig and the ears, cropping up as the arrow-flinging warrior. Though he doesn’t actually appear in Tolkien’s original tome, Team Hobbit has a work-around for that. “He’s elven king Thranduil’s son, and Thranduil is one of the characters in The Hobbit, and because elves are immortal it makes sense Legolas would be part of the sequence in the Woodland Realm,” Jackson tells EW. So that’s all right, then. Plus, who doesn’t want to see Legolas kicking butt again?

You’ll note he’s chatting with Luke Evans’ human hero Bard The Bowman, who will also pop up to help with a particular battle in the story. For more on him and the image, head to EW’s site.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey arrives on December 13. The Desolation Of Smaug follows on December 13 2013, and then There And Back Again will enter cinemas on 18 July 2014. If you haven’t already, go read our review of the first film.