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'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' gets a new trailer

The preview shows more of actress Evangeline Lilly as the elf Tauriel as well as Benedict Cumberbatch's voice work portraying the dragon Smaug.

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Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros. Pictures/AP
'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' stars Martin Freeman.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Fans who are eager for the next “Hobbit” installment now have a new trailer to help tide them over as they wait for the movie's release on Dec. 13.

The new preview shows some of the events of the movie “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the second of three planned movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit.” It begins with Bilbo (Martin Freeman) confronting the fearsome dragon, Smaug, which guards the treasure of the Lonely Mountain.

“Truly, the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, o Smaug the Stupendous,” Freeman tells him.

The clip shows an uneasy alliance between the dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and Thranduil, an elf king who is the father of Legolas (Orlando Bloom), as well as a blossoming relationship between Legolas and the elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly).

Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), a resident of Laketown, the settlement near the Lonely Mountain, is shown objecting to the dwarves’ plan.

“You have no right to enter that mountain,” Evans says.

“I have the only right,” Armitage tells him.

In the trailer, Bilbo starts to tell the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) about having found the One Ring, which will play an important part in the story of “The Lord of the Rings,” but he changes his mind at the last second and tells him he found “my courage.”

Smaug himself still doesn’t shown up the clip, but viewers get a preview of actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice for the dragon. (Cumberbatch is also listed as depicting “The Necromancer,” whom Tolkien fans know is an early name for “Lord of the Rings” villain Sauron.)

“Come now, don’t be shy,” Smaug says to Bilbo as he hides. 

“Smaug” will be released Dec. 13. Check out the full trailer.

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