The Two Hobbit Movies Are Now… Two Hobbit Movies

I’ve waited to post this because I’m not sure I understand what’s going on, and I’ve gotten enough things wrong in the last couple week’s that I already spend most of my time crying under my desk. But it’s big nerd news, so here goes — the two Hobbit movies are going to become, er… two Hobbit movies. Specifically, instead of having one Hobbit movie covering The Hobbit book and one movie bridging the gap between it and Lord of the Rings, now The Hobbit story will be spread out into both movies, and to hell with that other shit. I guess.

Please understand that I am well aware of my own lack of knowledge on this matter, so you screaming, frothing Tolkien nerds can tear me apart in a minute, but is this a good idea? I think mass audiences would much rather see Gandalf and Aragorn badassing their way through Middle-Earth for a movie than drawing out more extended hobbit road trips (and yes, I understand Gandalf is still part of the Hobbit). And if my memory fails me, aren’t Peter Jackson and new director Guillermo del Toro going to have to add some serious filler — assumably of the action-packed variety — to pad The Hobbit out to two films, which would piss off the Tolkien purists anyways, right? I await your savage corrections in the comments.