The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[claude]

The stone that Kili carries is called Labradorite, named after Labrador, Canada, where it was discovered. The Inuit people call it the "frozen fire of the Aurora Borealis" and it is considered to be magical, which may be the reason why Kili jokes about what may happen if anyone were to touch it. Labradorite can appear black, gray-green, dark gray or grayish white, and refracts colors, such as blue, green, gold, and red in the light. You see these qualities as Tauriel inspects the stone.

[wesley]

This is the only movie in the Middle-earth film franchise, directed by Peter Jackson, to not feature Frodo and Gollum. It is also the first of the many Middle-earth movies, including animated ones, not to feature Elrond. This leaves Gandalf and Galadriel as the only ones to appear in every movie based on the Middle-earth series, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, as Bilbo didn't appear in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

[michele]

Although the movie's plot is roughly based on chapters 7 through 13 of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit", it also contains a lot of original content, as well as material from other sources. In the book, the dwarfs' detainment with the Mirkwood Elves, their visit to Lake Town, as well as the confrontation with Smaug, each take about one brief chapter. In the movie, these sequences are extended with new material, and together take up nearly two thirds of the movie. Legolas, Tauriel and Alfrid are not in the book; Bard, Bolg, and the master of Lake Town are in the book, but they are not introduced until later chapters where they only play minor roles. Azog the Defiler is mentioned, but has already died long before the book's events. Gandalf's subplot comes mostly from the Appendices in the Lord of the Rings novels.

[lonnie]

Silvan Elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) was created for the trilogy. Tauriel is a name that means "Daughter of the Forest" in Sindarin.

[darrell]

A few to the original Hobbit that aren't as important in the film: when trying to tiptoe away from Smaug while the dragon is still asleep, Bilbo is holding a golden cup, which was what he stole in his first trip into Erebor in the book. Golden coins later fall from Smaug's belly as he crosses over the Company; which were a major plot point in the original book.

[manuel]

Five members of the cast worked on adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories: -Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug) had starred in Sherlock (2010) (Cumberbatch was Holmes and Freeman was Watson). -Stephen Fry (the Master of Lake Town) played Sherlock's brother Mycroft in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). -Sir Christopher Lee (Saruman) played Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991), Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and Mycroft Holmes in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). -Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) starred as Holmes in Mr. Holmes (2015).

[bryan]

A pair of Megaloceros giganteus (Irish elk) antlers flanks the Elf King's throne.

[jessie]

The romance between Kili and Tauriel was always intended to be in this movie, from as early as 2010, with her relationship with Legolas being strictly platonic. But when re-shoots were done, to turn it into three movies, the studio forced them to write Legolas into the love story, and turn it into a love triangle. Evangeline Lilly and Peter Jackson admitted they hated the idea of a love triangle, and just wanted to tell a simple love story.

[victoria]

Smaug was designed to be "multicultural", combining characteristics from dragons around the world.

[veronica]

Sir Christopher Lee (Saruman) commented that he would have loved to voice the dragon Smaug in a movie adaptation of "The Hobbit".

[carl]

Incorrect trivia: The song "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran was written for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), but rejected, and used for this movie instead.

[jamie]

There is a fan theory that the Arkenstone is actually one of the lost Silmarils, from J.R.R. Tolkiens "The Silmarilion". Changes in the visual design of the Arkenstone from how it is described in the book seem to indicate Peter Jackson (or one of his design team) subscribe to that theory. Since they do not have movie rights to that book, explicit references to its story and characters do not feature in the movies.

[leo]

It is heavily implied in the film that Gandalf sets the events of the Hobbit movies in motion because he wants Smaug destroyed before the inevitable beginning of the War of the Ring; if Smaug were to ally with Sauron, it would mean almost certain ruin for Middle-Earth, as the forces of Rohan and Gondor would not have been able to bring him down without suffering enormous losses. As The Hobbit novel is quite short and told from Bilbo's perspective, it reveals little about the true intentions of both Gandalf and Sauron (the latter only being mentioned a few times). However, the appendices of the Lord of the Rings novels and J.R.R. Tolkien's Unfinished Tales place the events of The Hobbit in a much wider context: they make very clear that Gandalf has been keeping track of Sauron's return and his search for the One Ring for many centuries. Gandalf is doing everything to prevent Sauron from rising to his full power or getting help from Smaug. This idea is presented much more explicitly in the Hobbit films, and reinforced in the extended version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) when Gandalf meets with the White Council at Rivendell: he expresses his concern at the possibility of Smaug allying with the new darkness that Radagast had encountered, although Saruman dismisses this as nothing more than some human playing with black magic, rather than recognizing it as Sauron.

[caroline]

At one point, Bilbo and the company of Dwarves arrive at Lake Town, which was mentioned in a conversation between an aging Bilbo (Sir Ian Holm) to Frodo (Elijah Wood) in Rivendell, in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

[clayton]

During filming, Sir Ian McKellen had to spend several hours in a box, with nothing but a microphone and pictures of the Dwarves for company (the footage would be edited in to make him look taller than the Dwarves), and was so upset by this that he exclaimed "This is not why I became an actor!" The microphone was still on, and everyone on-set heard him as a result. In consolation, the cast and crew surprised him by sticking gifts and encouragement messages into his trailer.

[camila]

Gloin takes great insult that the portrait of his bearded wife is mistaken for being his brother. In the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), his son Gimli notes that Dwarf women are often mistaken for men, on account of their beards.

[michele]

Royd Tolkien: The great-grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, is in the Extended Edition in a flashback as one of the Captains of the Gondorian Rangers burying the body of the Witch-king of Angmar. This was an homage to Royd's cameo in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), as a Gondorian Ranger at Osgiliath.

[nicholas]

The last line of the Laketown Prophecy ("And the lake will shine and burn...") is said while the waters of the lake are afire from the light of the setting sun, giving us a taste of the city's potential destruction by Smaug.

[ray]

Richard Armitage (Thorin) shares his name with Stephen Fry's (Master of Lake Town's) first theatrical agent, Richard Armitage (1928-1986), although they are not related. The older Armitage, who was the son of songwriter Noel Gay, asked Stephen Fry, then aged just twenty-six, to write the book for his 1984 revival of his father's musical "Me and My Girl", the success of which enabled Fry to buy the house in London where he still lives.

[wesley]

The only time Legolas blinks is when he realizes he has been wounded and when Thranduil beheads the orc he is interrogating. This is in keeping with the character, as the only time Legolas blinks in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is when he is strongly surprised.