Third & Final 'Hobbit' Movie Retitled 'The Battle of the Five Armies'

They're going all out for this last one. Peter Jackson has officially announced that the third and final movie in The Hobbit trilogy, wrapping up our adventures in Middle Earth this December, has been retitled. The new title for the release will be The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, indicating that this last one is all about the big battle and not so much Bilbo's return home. However, Jackson does explain this and says this decision for the new title was made last week after they reviewed a final cut of the last movie. Ever since these movies were announced, the final one was titled There and Back Again, but that's no longer the case.

Here is Peter Jackson's explanation and new title announcement as posted to his own Facebook page:

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".

When we did the premiere trip late last year, I had a quiet conversation with the studio about the idea of revisiting the title. We decided to keep an open mind until a cut of the film was ready to look at. We reached that point last week, and after viewing the movie, we all agreed there is now one title that feels completely appropriate.

And so: "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" it is.

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.

Jackson did also confirm that an Extended Edition of The Desolation of Smaug is on the way, with "over 25 mins" of new footage in it. "Before then however, we have a film to finish, and much to share with you..."

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit... J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, being directed by Peter Jackson as three separate movies, is set in Middle-Earth 60 years before Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in a trilogy ten years ago. The films, with screenplays by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson, were shot consecutively in 48FPS 3D using the latest cameras. The Hobbit follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. The Battle of the Five Armies arrives in theaters in HFR, IMAX & 3D on December 17th, 2014 later this year. We'll see you in theaters then.