'The Hobbit: There and Back Again' Release Date Delayed

Peter Jackson’s third and final film in “The Hobbit” series has been pushed back. Those hoping for the summer release date of July 18th, 2014 will be disappointed to know that you will now have to wait ‘til winter, December 17th, 2014.

This matches more closely with the second film in “The Hobbit” series, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” which has a mid-December release date of December 13th, 2013.

There’s no word as to why the move was made, but you can rest easy. “There and Back Again” was originally set to open against “X-Men: Days of Future Past”. Perhaps they were keeping our wallets in mind? (Haha, yeah right.)

As some of you may know, “The Hobbit” was envisioned and filmed as a two part saga, but Peter Jackson announced in July of 2012 his plans for a third film, to make a trilogy to rival that of “The Lord of the Rings”. This new third film would make use of footage filmed for the first two movies, but would also require some new additional filming as well. Peter Jackson had apparently just discovered Tolkien’s expanded Hobbit-related material, which had long been released.

So, Hobbit fans, what do you think of the wait you’ll have to suffer through? And how do you feel about the film being made into a trilogy in the first place? Is there really enough content in one book to be made into three films? If the first movie was any indication, probably not.

Be sure to catch “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” in theaters December 13th, 2013, and then “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” in theaters December 17th, 2014. (You can make it a winter holiday tradition!)