First Look: Evageline Lilly As HOBBIT’s Elf Warrior Tauriel

Like his three-film adaptation of the The Lord Of The Rings before it, the first part of director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit has drawn some criticism from die-hard fans of the book’s author, J. R. R. Tolkien. It’s understandable to an extent that fans may be protective of their love, but it does ignore the fact that story-telling in film sometimes has different needs than story-telling in novels does.

One of the changes that Tolkien fans have expressed the most concern about is the inclusion of a new character in the upcoming The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug in the form of an elf warrior named Tauriel and being played by Lost‘s Evangeline Lilly. While we have seen Lily in bits of behind-the-scenes footage that have been released, we have not yet seen an official look at the character until now.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Lilly described the character as “slightly reckless and totally ruthless and doesn’t hesitate to kill.”

Tauriel is the head of the Elven Guard. She’s a Sylvan Elf, which means she’s of a much lower order than the elves we all became acquainted with in The Lord of the Rings. She doesn’t hold the same kind of status that Arwen or Galadriel or Elrond or Legolas do — she’s much more lowly. She sort of goes against the social order of the elves a little bit. She will definitely have a love story. I can’t give away too much about it. It’s not a huge focus but it is there and it is important and it does drive Tauriel and her story and her actions.

I can already hear the outrage over that love story possibly involving Lord Of The Rings‘s Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Lilly doesn’t do much too either confirm or dispel that line of thought.

Tauriel’s relationship with Legolas is significant. They’ve known each other since they were children, and Legolas’ dad, [Elven king] Thranduil, has a soft spot for Tauriel and sees something very special in her. So if you grow up side by side, and your dad has a very special spot in his heart for this young woman who’s a fantastic warrior, I think it’s hard not to notice her. That’s probably as much as I can say.

Currently it is rumored that we will see the first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug in front of Man Of Steel next weekend. Will we see Lilly in action then?