‘The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies’ Is New Title For Last Installment, Peter Jackson Says

Peter Jackson has announced that the last installment in his trilogy — based on the J.R.R Tolkien novel, The Hobbit — has a new title: The Battle Of The Five Armies (originally There And Back Again).

The announcement was made on Thursday by Jackson himself (not unusual) on his Facebook page and he explains that looking at the title of the third The Hobbit film, didn’t make sense any longer, because originally, the films were only supposed to be two movies, but with the addition of a third film, The Battle Of The Five Armies makes more sense:

“Our journey to make The Hobbit Trilogy has been in some ways like Bilbo’s own, with hidden paths revealing their secrets to us as we’ve gone along. 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.”

Apparently P.J., as Jackson is affectionately known to his fans, had been thinking about revisiting the title of the last installment in his trilogy since last year, while promoting The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug.

At that time, Jackson says he had a “quiet conversation” with the studio (MGM) about possibly changing the title, but left the window open until they had some useful footage of the last film, which happened last week (rejoice!).

“And so: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies it is, Jackson says on Facebook.

“As Professor Tolkien intended, There and Back Again encompasses Bilbo’s entire adventure, so don’t be surprised if you see it used on a future box-set of all three movies.”

The Battle of the Five Armies, is an epic fight “between the Goblins and the Wargs against Men of Dale, Elves, Dwarves, Eagles, and a Shape-shifter on and near the Lonely Mountain (Erebor).”

Some Tolkien followers are already expressing disappointment in The Battle Of The Five Armies titles, since according to them it takes away from Bilbo’s journey, which is what the story is all about.

Unfortunately, you can’t always please everyone with a production like this and Jackson needs to do what’s best for the film commercially to sell those seats at the theater at the end of this year.

We can look forward to watching the extended cut of Desolation Of Smaug, for which P.J. promises 25 additional minutes of brand new scenes that go along with original music by Howard Shore.

“Expect to see and hear much about The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in the coming months,” Jackson promises his loyal followers. And we will!

[Image via MGM]