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Martin Freeman Has Been Cast in The Hobbit and I’m Looking Increasingly Stupid


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Okay. Martin Freeman — Tim in the British Office, Arthur Dent in the recent Hitchhiker’s Guide movie, Watson in the BBC’s modern Sherlock reimagining — has been officially announced as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. It’s been long rumored and long denied, but it’s great casting. Obviously, I’m more concerned about how all this actual Hobbit progess is making me look like an asshole for being certain it’s not happening. Enh, first things first, here’s the rest of the announced cast courtesy of /Film:

Complementing Mr. Freeman are: Richard Armitage (MI-5, Captain America) as  Thorin Oakenshield; Aidan Turner (Being Human) and Rob Kazinsky (EastEnders) as Kili and Fili; Graham McTavish (Secretariat) as Dwalin; John Callen as Oin; Stephen Hunter (All Saints) as Bombur; and Mark Hadlow (King Kong) as Dori and Peter Hambleton (The Strip) as Gloin.

More info to come in the next few minutes. Mr. Jackson is also expected to confirm the return of Ian McKellan as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and announce roles for Jimmy Nebitt and David Tennant as well. Other actors mentioned by Deadline as possibles are Stephen Fry, Saoirse Ronan, Aidan Turner as a possible Elf King and Bill Nighy as a potential voice for Smaug the Dragon.

No worries there. So back to me looking like an asshole: It’s looking like this whole week of announcements — from the greenlight and the probably move from New Zealand — which caused the actors’ unions to drop their boycott — and then allowed the cast to be signed — was likely a calculated bluff by Peter Jackson and the producers, which worked perfectly. Certainly fooled me. I assume that after a bit more huffing and puffing, Jackson and crew will film in New Zealand, since they still have their pre-production work there, but we’ll see.

Personally, I’m still skeptical this is actually going to happen, but I clearly have no basis for this other than seven years of delays and my (considerable) gut. So for the time being I’ll be shutting the fuck up. Sigh.