William Kircher as Bifur
Demosthenes: Bifur at Bag End getting introduced. Complete with axe in head.
maegwen: Affectionately nicknamed by some of the TORn community as “Axe Head,” we’re really not sure what to make of Bifur’s unusual head ornament, but it certainly makes him seem bad ass.
MrCere: A wound from the Dwarf vs. Goblin wars? Or a hard working, downtrodden dwarf who took a wound — not in combat but in a mining accident signifying the decline of the people who once ruled The Lonely Mountain? Comic relief?
Quickbeam: Now we know why Gimli makes that joke in the TTT Extended Edition: “Because my axe is in his central nervous system!” So it seems Dwarves do know a thing or two about biology.
Closeup of Bifur. Yes, that is an axe. No, we don’t know why
Calisuri: I know why… he had some kind of mining accident and its a similar situation to being shot by an arrow. Sometimes its more harmful to remove it. So obviously the axe must stay there to allow him to live.
Demosthenes: I think the axe in the head is absolutely ridiculous. Not to mention medically impossible.
James Nesbitt as Bofur
Demosthenes: Bofur. Is that the Rivendell scenery in the background? That orange-red sunset glow is typical of the Rivendell sets from Fellowship of the Ring. And is that a food fight?
Garfeimao: Pippi Longstocking!
maegwen: We see a number of blurry objects flying past Bofur, so maybe it is a food fight or something of that sort. Also, pure cosmetic comment of no useful purpose: Look at that grin. Doesn’t that grin make *you* grin?
MrCere: I side with a food fight hearkening back (forward?) to Gimli’s eating habits.
Closeup of UDO — Unidentified Dwarvish Object.
Calisuri: My guess is this the same scene with Bombur below in Rivendell and someone is throwing food at him.
maegwen: A fair amount of time was spent after the viewing the trailer trying to slo-mo and figure out what is flying past Bofur’s face. We never did figure it out at the time and I’m not sure why we needed to. But at 2am all things seem sensible.
Stephen Hunter as Bombur
Calisuri: Looks a bit like the space slug from Star Wars to me! See the close-up below! 😛
Demosthenes: Bombur. The pillars and balcony in the following few screenshots where he’s with Ori make me think that it’s at Rivendell.
Earl: Are the Dwarf names pronounced correctly? I thought it was, for example, Bomb-oor and not Bomber…
maegwen: What on earth is that? Do we want to know? (ed. – Some people are saying “sausage.” It could be a really gross-looking sausage, maybe.)
MrCere: Did something not edible end up in the food fight? Would Peter Jackson go that far? Have you seen all his movies?
Closeup of the “food” item held by Bombur. A sausage?
maegwen: It doesn’t look any more appealing when close up.
Bombur crashes to the ground
Demosthenes: Bombur. The pillars and balcony in the following few screenshots where he’s with Ori make me think that it’s at Rivendell.
Quickbeam: Dwarf humor according to Peter Jackson includes tossing during critical battle scenes but Bombur will provide endless overweight jokes.
Beorn’s hall or Rivendell?
maegwen: As Demosthenes wonders in the previous screen cap, where are we? Another discussion that took place on trailer night, and is also being debated on our Facebook pages and forums: Does this scene takes place in Beorn’s hall or in Rivendell? Most were trying to decide whether the bench Bombur collapses appears to be of Elvish origin or otherwise.
MrCere: I vote Rivendell and I can see Elrond’s reaction expression already.
Mark Hadlow as Dori
Demosthenes: Dori at Bag End messing around with more plates and cups.
MrCere: Fantasy films never get much mainstream recognition but the makeup and prosthetics on this many main characters — all similar, but designed and executed differently — will be hard to ignore. Hadlow looks great, IMHO.
Jed Brophy as Nori
Demosthenes: Nori. I think from the background that this is in Rivendell. At first I was very excited, thinking the background musical instrument could be one that the dwarves originally brought to Bag End, but the sleeve work on the arm looks too fluid to be dwarven. I think this is probably Rivendell and a dinner of some sort with Elrond Half-elven.
maegwen The tricorne-hat effect evident in the publicity still of Nori has been toned down.
Quickbeam: Notice how WETA designed his eyebrows and hair to be intricately braided together.
Adam Brown as Ori
Demosthenes: Ori with a pitcher of ale at Bag End. Lots of Bag End shots in this trailer, I must say. I wonder exactly how long the opening sequence is going to spend in and around Hobbiton. Possibly longer than we’d think?
MrCere: I think Demo is on to something here. I believe we are going to have a lot of character introduction time and conflict introduction time, all set in Bag End. This will include a lot of flashbacks and showing instead of telling, but expect the audience and the dwarves to feel comfortable sitting around hearing tales in the dark.
“And the leader of our company…”
Leaving us with just one last dwarf to introduce…
“… Thorin Oakenshield.”
Richard Armitage as Thorin
Demosthenes: Thorin Oakenshield, looking much more assured on his pony than poor old Bilbo.
maegwen: And so we meet the “King Under the Mountain.” This is clearly the “hero shot” of the trailer. We can see from the earlier scene within the entryway of Bag End that Thorin is normal dwarf-height, but shown here on his horse, captured in a sunburst of light, he looks every inch the “enormously important” dwarf he is.
MrCere: Fans should expect Thorin to drive this film; His desires and motives are as important to the narrative as Bilbo’s in the cinema version, I suspect.
