By Fangirls everywhere will be soggying their mithril at the news that Orlando Bloom has agreed to reprise his role as prettyboy elf Legolas in The Hobbit. Director Peter Jackson made the announcement on his Facebook page earlier today, inspiring such eloquent reflections from fans as “YES!!!! It’s official …¡¡¡!!! Wooo hooooo!!!¡¡¡”, “You are better than God !!!”, “I don’t remember to saw Bloom so gorgeous as when he made Legolas… kind of breathtaking, isn’t girls?” and naturally, “this move is going to RAPE at the box office =)”.
Legolas wasn’t part of JRR Tolkien’s original novel, but Jackson seems to be going out of his way to reunite as many of his Lord of the Rings cast as possible, having already announced the return of Elijah Wood (Frodo), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) and Ian Holm (the older Bilbo). Though none of those characters were in the book, Andy Serkis’ Gollum, Ian McKellen’s Gandalf and Hugo Weaving’s Elrond all were, so they too will return to Middle Earth. Martin Freeman, of Sherlock and the British Office, will star in the lead role as Bilbo the younger. Jackson’s going to have a task working all these characters into the book without taking too much artistic licence, but somehow I doubt fans of the Rings movie trilogy will be too concerned.