There are two(ish) new character confirmations from The Hobbit HQ today, Luke Evans (left) of Clash of the Titans fame will be cast as Bard the Bowman, with Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) confirmed to voice Smaug. Cumberbatch will be playing two roles in Jackson’s revisit to Middle-Earth, having already begun voicing the insidious ‘Necromancer’, who is later revealed to be an incarnation of The Dark Lord Sauron.
Evan’s character, Bard, although not featuring too heavily in the first film (An Unexpected Journey) will play a seminal role in the second (There and Back Again). Also known as Bard the grim, he is haunted and embittered by the murder of his father, Girion, at the claws of evil dragon, Smaug.
Evans can next be seen in Immortals, and later The Three Musketeers, with Cumberbatch reprising his role in the BCC’s Sherlock next season and starring in cinema releases War Horse and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits cinema screens next year, followed by the second, There and Back again, in 2013.
