The Hobbit (film series)

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Name: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Abbreviation(s): AUJ, DoS, BotFA
Creator: Peter Jackson, JRR Tolkien
Date(s): 2012-2014
Medium: film
Country of Origin: New Zealand
External Links: The Hobbit Official Site, The Hobbit Official Blog
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Hobbit film trilogy is an adaptation of The Hobbit, a novel written in 1937 by J.R.R. Tolkien. The novel was written before The Lord of the Rings, so the LOTR novel is a sequel, but the Hobbit films were produced after the Peter Jackson LOTR films and are considered a prequel trilogy. The Hobbit films were produced by the same people, use many of the same actors, and were filmed in the same locations as the LOTR films.

An Unexpected Journey premiered in Wellington, New Zealand on November 28, 2012; The Desolation of Smaug premiered in Los Angeles, California on December 2, 2013; and The Battle of Five Armies premiered in London, UK on December 2, 2014.

The Hobbit films generated a lot of fan interest starting long before production began, let alone before the films' release.

Film Production Difficulties

The Hobbit was planned first as two films, with a screenplay written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, and some input by Guillermo del Toro.

Despite the success of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Hobbit was plagued by delays: from December 2007, when Peter Jackson announced that he and Fran Walsh would be producing a film version of The Hobbit,[1] through the selection of Guillermo del Toro to direct in April 2008[2], problems due to the collapse of New Line Cinema[3], legal issues with the Tolkien Trust[4], and MGM studio financial problems[5], the departure of Guillermo del Toro in May 2010 [6], an actor's union boycott[7], finally culminating in threats from the studio to remove the production from New Zealand, requiring in marketing agreements and legislation. Finally, on October 15, 2010, Peter Jackson announced that he would direct The Hobbit and it would stay in New Zealand.[8]

Production began on all three movies in New Zealand on March 21, 2011, and ended on July 6, 2012.[9] On July 30, 2012, Jackson announced that the two movies would be extended into three.[10] The third movie was originally titled There And Back Again but was later renamed The Battle of Five Armies.

See also: Infographic: The tortured 73-year history of The Hobbit film[11] and Wikipedia:The Hobbit film project.

The Cast

See The Hobbit RPF for a cast list.

Fan Reactions


Fandom

Communities and Archives

Fanfic Challenges

The Hobbit Big Bang long story challenge is at Hobbit Big Bang on AO3 LJ Tumblr


Shipping

The most popular ship is Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, with the pairing portmanteau names Bagginshield and Thilbo[12]. This grew from the story, with an assist from Martin Freeman's fanbase from Sherlock (BBC) and Richard Armitage's fanbase from everything he was ever in.

Note that relationships, both slash and gen between Gimli and Legolas have been a favorite of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings fandom from books to movies.

For more details, see List of Hobbit (film series) Relationships and Popularity

Other popular ships include

The Desolation of Smaug introduced Beorn, Thranduil, Legolas, Bard of Laketown, Smaug, and the film's semi-original characters Tauriel, Sigrid, Bain, Tilda, and Alfrid. Newly common ships between December 2013 and December 2014 included:

In December 2014, The Battle of the Five Armies introduced Dáin Ironfoot and explained what happened to Thranduil's wife, while also encouraging:

Gen Relationships

Family relationships and friendships among Thorin's Company, the dwarves of Erebor in general, the residents of Laketown, the hobbits of The Shire, and the elves of Mirkwood are all common elements of fanworks, even those that focus on a romantic ship.


Tropes

The tropes for this fandom also depend heavily on which movie most recently aired, though some tropes began early due to general awareness of how the book plays out.

  • Dwarven Culture - Taking the available textual information from the rest of Tolkien's works and visual information from the movies, then mixing liberally with communal imagination, fans have invented complex cultural expectations for dwarves. Some ideas are headcanons for only a single fan, while many have become shared fanon among large groups.
  • Hobbit Culture - Tolkien's books contain rather more information about hobbits than dwarves, but fans choose which elements to incorporate into their works and invent new ones where there is inadequate information (or where it suits their plot).
    • Food - Hobbits' 7 meals a day are often mentioned, as are Bilbo's cooking skills. Hobbit courtship is often said to involve food.
    • Respectability - Mentioned in the novel, Bilbo puts aside his respectability for adventure. In some works, he's said to be a bachelor still because something else has already made him lose respectability in the eyes of other hobbits. Belladonna's Took heritage is sometimes brought into play, such that she also was involved in adventures in her youth.
    • Flowers - The language of the flowers is often referenced in works where Bilbo is shipped with someone. Flower crowns also frequently make an appearance.
  • Canon Divergent Alternate Universes - Several types of AUs gained traction early on, frequently developing large followings. Most of these are based on canon divergence, often involving fix-its.
  • Soulmates - also known as "Ones" as in one and only love. Many works include the soul mate's name appearing like a tattoo, on both characters' bodies, sometimes hidden and other times un-hideable. In other works characters have soul names or personal names they keep secret from all but close relatives and/or their spouse. This is semi-canonical among elves in Tolkien's writings.
  • Genderswap - There are very few canonical women in The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. There are a few more in additional materials from Tolkien, but most of those are elves or valar. The films added a few women to the movies or expanded the roles of barely-mentioned women. However, the vast, vast majority of main characters are men. It's very common for Bilbo in particular, but also several other characters, to become cis female in fanworks. There are also trans characters in Hobbit fanworks.
  • Mpreg - This is quite common, with many works describing that either some or all hobbit or dwarf cis men are capable of bearing children outside an A/B/O framework.
  • Alpha/Beta/Omega - Usually, the younger, shorter or weaker characters are set as the Omegas, mainly Bilbo and Kili.

Notable Fanworks

Fanart

The art linked here is general to the fandom, not specific to single characters or ships.

Canon-related art:
AU art:

Fanfiction

Zines

Cosplay

Meta/Further Reading

Other Resources

References

  1. ^ press release repost on TORn accessed 2010-7-3
  2. ^ Guillermo del Toro to direct 'Hobbit' Variety magazine, April 24, 2008, accessed 2010-11-16
  3. ^ New Line, Warner Bros. To Merge Operations Forbes, Feb. 28, 2008
  4. ^ Tolkien Trust category at Frodo Franchise accessed 2010-11-16
  5. ^ The Hobbit' finally close to getting greenlight from Warner Bros., New Line and MGM LA Times blog, October 1, 2010; accessed 2010-11-16
  6. ^ on TORn accessed 2010-11-16
  7. ^ How the unions lost the "Hobbit" war accessed 2010-11-16
  8. ^ Hobbit shoot to stay in NZ press release repost on TORn, accessed 2010-11-16
  9. ^ collider.com, Production Officially Begins on Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT, March 20, 2011
  10. ^ Peter Jackson's Facebook: An unexpected journey, July 30, 2012
  11. ^ infographic on blastr.com, posted Aug 30, 2010, referenced 2010-11-16
  12. ^ The first Bilbo/Thorin works on AO3 were posted around the 14th and 15th of December, 2012. By February 20, 2015, the ship had over 5000 works.
  13. ^ The first Fíli/Kíli works on AO3 were posted around December 16, 2012. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 1050 works there. By December 2014, it had about 1640 works.
  14. ^ The first Dwalin/Thorin work on AO3 was posted around January 3, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 160 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 320 works.
  15. ^ The first Dwalin/Ori work on AO3 was posted around December 21, 2012. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 350 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had over 660 works.
  16. ^ The first Dwalin/Nori work on AO3 was posted around December 31, 2012. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 150 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 315 works.
  17. ^ The first Bofur/Nori work on AO3 was posted around January 6, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 80 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 195 works.
  18. ^ The first Bilbo/Bofur work on AO3 was posted around December 21, 2012. By June, 2013, the ship had about 220 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 360 works.
  19. ^ The first Dis/Her Husband work on AO3 was posted around December 22, 2012. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 65 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 135 works. About half the works were also tagged with Bilbo/Thorin. Many of the tagged works are for a past relationship where her husband is already dead, but some works are specifically about how Dís met or lived with her husband, or have him surviving.
  20. ^ The first Balin/Dori work on AO3 was posted around February 2, 2013. (The tag was canonized on February 4th. The 2 works listed as being older in the filters are drabble collections that added this ship later in their sets, not when they were first posted.) By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 60 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 110 works.
  21. ^ The first Dís/Dwalin works on AO3 were posted around January 13, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 40 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 80 works.
  22. ^ The first Bungo/Belladonna work on AO3 was posted around January 30, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 40 works tagged there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 75 works. Many works that mention Belladonna/Bungo aren't tagged with the ship, since the works usually focus on Bilbo and have his parents as a background ship. (For example, by December 15, 2014, Belladonna was tagged about 270 times and Bungo about 195 times.)
  23. ^ The first Bombur/His Wife work on AO3 was posted around April 16, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 17 works tagged there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 26 works.
  24. ^ Many works that mention Bombur and his wife aren't tagged with the ship, since it's usually a minor mention. For example, A Most Sensible Idea by HildyJ includes a scene introducing Bombur's wife and children, but the work is not tagged with that ship.
  25. ^ The first Kíli/Tauriel works on AO3 were posted around January 13, 2013, long before Tauriel appeared in film. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 65 works on the site. By December 15, 2014, it had about 555 works. By February 20, 2015, it had about 865 works.
  26. ^ The first Fíli/Sigrid work on AO3 was posted around December 23, 2013. By December 15, 2014, the ship had about 55 works at that site. By February 20, 2015, it had 111.
  27. ^ The first Thorin/Thranduil work on AO3 was posted around December 21, 2012. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 115 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 270 works.
  28. ^ The first Bard/Thranduil work was posted around December 13, 2013. This ship had less than 20 works on AO3 as of December 1, 2014; by February 20, 2015, there were about 310.
  29. ^ There were about 11 Thranduil/His Wife works on AO3 by December 15, 2013. Only 2 of these were also tagged with the Hobbit movies; the rest dealt with the book or with the Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion. By December 15, 2014, this ship had about 40 works on the site. By February 20, 2015, it had 95 works.
  30. ^ The Durin family is represented by several gen relationship tags on AO3. Leaving out Fíli & Kíli, the largest ones are: & Thorin (first AO3 work around January 7, 2013, about 33 works by December 15, 2013, about 57 works by December 15, 2014), Fíli & Thorin (first AO3 work around January 3, 2013, about 27 works by December 15, 2013, about 43 works by December 15, 2014), Kíli & Thorin (first AO3 work around January 5, 2013, about 13 works by December 15, 2013, about 69 works by December 15, 2014), and Fíli & Kíli & Thorin (first AO3 work around January 4, 2013, about 114 works by December 15, 2013, about 166 works by December 15, 2014). There is also one freeform: Durin Family (first AO3 work around December 24, 2012, about 160 works by December 15, 2013, about 256 works by December 15, 2014).
  31. ^ The Ri family is represented by 4 gen relationship tags on AO3: Dori & Nori (first AO3 work around May 3, 2013, about 5 works by December 15, 2013, about 17 works by December 15, 2014), Nori & Ori (first AO3 work around March 15, 2013, about 12 works by December 15, 2013, about 15 works by December 15, 2014), Dori & Ori (first AO3 work around May 26, 2013, about 6 works by December 15, 2013, about 12 works by December 15, 2014), and Dori & Nori & Ori (first AO3 work around February 7, 2013, about 37 works by December 15, 2013, about 88 works by December 15, 2014).
  32. ^ The Ur family is represented by 4 gen relationship tags on AO3: Bifur & Bofur (first AO3 work around June 22, 2013, about 2 works by December 15, 2013, about 4 works by December 15, 2014), Bofur & Bombur (first AO3 work around March 23, 2013, about 9 works by December 15, 2013, about 18 works by December 15, 2014), Bifur & Bombur (first AO3 work around February 8, 2014, about 2 works by December 15, 2014), and Bifur & Bofur & Bombur (first AO3 work around January 14, 2013, about 17 works by December 15, 2013, about 36 works by December 15, 2014)
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