Fans of the highly anticipated blockbuster film brace themselves as the final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies' approaches its release date. The film, scheduled to premiere on December 17 of this year, is the third of the Middle Earth based series from the 1937 publication of 'The Hobbit' by the renowned author.

In the Comic-Con held in San Diego last week, film director Peter Jackson reveals that a number of the main characters will lose their lives in the Battle of the Five Armies. Jackson added that losing a main character in the film paves the way for powerful and highly emotional scenes.

'The Hobbit' director also divulged that unlike its predecessors, the Battle of the Five Armies can be expected to be less comical, and that its tone can be compared to be at the same level of intensity as that of the original hit, 'Lord of the Rings', a movie based on the novel of the same title, also by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Senior Visual Effects Supervisor for Wega Digital Joe Letteri has told Collider that the the conclusion of 'The Hobbit' series showcases how Middle Earth was left off where the 'Lord of the Rings' era picked up.

'The Battle of the Five Armies' film was originally titled as 'There and Back Again', but was later on changed because the production felt that the former seems to be more fitting, as the film focuses largely on the war between the elves, the goblins, the dwarves, Beon the shape-shifter, and the men of Middle Earth.

The much-awaited film has recently released the first batch of its trailers, where it reveals some of its main characters including Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Bard (Luke Evans), and the dwarf king Thorin (Richard Armitage) as they prepare for Middle Earth's forthcoming war.

'The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies' also stars 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Benedict Cumberbatch (Necromancer), Lee Pace (Thranduil), and Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel).