'The Hobbit' First Trailer Premieres Online Tonight!

'The Hobbit' First Trailer Premieres Online Tonight!

: Published on Tuesday, December 20 2011; Written by Katie Marzullo

If you're still coming down off the high of the Dark Knight Rises trailer, here’s a Christmas present for all you Tolkienites out there, care of Peter Jackson and Warner Bros. Pictures!

For those of you who bought tickets to see The Adventures of Tintin when it opens this Wednesday solely to see the first trailer for Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will prelude the film, looks like you didn’t have to spend that money after all. WB Pictures has announced that they will be releasing the trailer a full day early and will be streaming it online tonight (December 20) at 7pm PST for all the world to see!

Jackson has been teasing us for what seems like forever now with all kinds of production stills and behind-the-scenes goodies from the set, but we have yet to really see any kind of finished footage of the film strung together. Now, looks like we won’t have to sit through Spielberg’s animated Tintin flick for just one brief taste of the Tolkien goodness! Hooray!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings series and will bring back old faves like Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellen, and Andy Serkis but will also feature some new faces to the franchise, such as Evangeline Lilly, Martin Freeman, and Luke Evans. The film is slated to open one year from now, on December 14, 2012.