New trailer for 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

As for Beorn, it seems that Radagast will be taking his place. Which is fine with me. (Or would be, if Radagast wasn't such a pitiful specimen... like I said.)

As far as I know Beorn is going to turn up at some point though - the beginning of the second film perhaps, if they are indeed ending it with the Eagles. The role has been cast: a Swedish actor whose work I am not personally familiar with, Mikael Persbrandt. Also, having watched the production videos they showed some footage of the set of his house, very oversized with giant furniture and what not. As I recall Richard Armitage said in the video that it was one of his favourite sets.
As for Radagast, I just don't see why he needs to be given a role personally, except to sell action figures perhaps. Given that the evidence we get of him suggests that he was a somewhat nervous person and that by the time of The Lord of the Rings he appears to have practically gone into hiding, especially by the time of the Council when he couldn't be found, I don't see how he has a place even in the story of the White Council and the Necromancer. Perhaps they wanted a canonical character to help bloat the story, and his adventure with Gandalf and the "Ringwraith tomb" or whatever it is will be used to explain his absence from the films of The Lord of the Rings. It just seems strange to me given that there's not even evidence for him being a member of the White Council. I always speculated that he almost certainly was but eventually just stopped turning up to meetings.
The "Ringwraith tomb" rumour, incidentally, is really the most irritating thing I've heard the whole time. It would have been almost impossible to convey within the film, but it always frustrated me that the very existence of Arnor (and Angmar) was completely omitted from the films of The Lord of the Rings and now it sounds like it's being taken to pad out these films and warped into something quite alien to Professor Tolkien's own conception.