The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a 2013 epic fantasy adventure film co-written, produced and directed by Peter Jackson. It is the second installment of a three-part film series based on J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, beginning with An Unexpected Journey (2012) and set to conclude with There and Back Again (2014). The three films together act as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film series.
The storyline continues the events of An Unexpected Journey, in which the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) travels with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a company of thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) into the Kingdom of Erebor, taking them through Mirkwood, Esgaroth, and Dale to combat with the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch).

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The Hobbit Smaug

One of the last great dragons of Middle-earth, Smaug rose to prominence by laying waste to the town of Dale and capturing the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) with all of its treasure. These events occurred some 150 years before the events of The Hobbit, and Smaug was already centuries old at the time. The Hobbit recounts the tale of a party of dwarves (consisting of a few of the original residents of the Lonely Mountain and their descendants) and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (their titular burglar) to recapture the mountain and kill the dragon. In the book, the dragon is sometimes called Smaug the Golden or Smaug the Magnificent.

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Legolas in the hobbit

Orlando Bloom is ready to slide back in the saddle as the elf-prince Legolas from the “The Lord of the Rings” movies for Peter Jackson’s upcoming two-part adaptation of “The Hobbit.” It’s a move that may irk some die-hard fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien novels —  Legolas does not appear in the bookshelf version of “The Hobbit,” a tale set 60 years before “The Lord of the Rings” unfolds.

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The Hobbit Dwarves

The Dwarf Cast from 'The Hobbit

Dean O'Gorman as Fili

Aidan Turner as Kili

Peter Hambleton as Gloin

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Gandalf The Hobbit

Gandalf is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He appears as a wizard, member and later the head (after Saruman's betrayal and fall) of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West. In The Lord of the Rings, he is initially known as Gandalf the Grey, but returns from death as Gandalf the White.

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Bilbo Baggins The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, as well as a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien's narrative conceit, in which all the writings of Middle-earth are translations from the fictitious volume of The Red Book of Westmarch, Bilbo is the author of The Hobbit and translator of various "works from the elvish" (as mentioned in the end of The Return of the King).

In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit in comfortable middle age at 50 years old, was hired in spite of himself as a "burglar" by the wizard Gandalf and 13 dwarves led by their king Thorin Oakenshield on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

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