'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies' Battle Is 45 Minutes Long; See Battle Plans

Peter Jackson doesn't shy away from the idea of making epic-length stories, and of creating conflicts within them that match the overall scope of his Middle-Earth films. The Lord of the Rings films are known for absolutely massive battles, but the final Hobbit film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the only one which actually features the word "battle" in its title. Accordingly, the actual Battle of the Five Armies will be truly massive: 45 minutes long.

Along with a bit of info on the battle, we've got the film's final poster, a couple other great pieces of art, and one more detail. When the final Hobbit film hits theaters, it will be accompanied by a theatrical preview of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Let's do the Batman v Superman bit first, and then we'll move on. Forbes has been told that the Batman v Superman trailer will be in front of The Battle of the Five Armies, but that it might actually premiere elsewhere first. (There's even supposition that Interstellar could feature a surprise trailer debut, but we don't have any intel on that yet.)

Now, on to the actual Hobbit film.

EW has a great deal of info on the final chapter of The Hobbit. Of the battle, Jackson explains, "There's a lot of logistics that have to be thought through. We have dwarves and men and elves and orcs, all with different cultures, with different weapons, and different shields and patterns and tactics."

And here's where the potential spoilers begin, so read no further if you don't want to know more. (The story is obviously not new, but we'll understand if you haven't read the book and just want to experience the film.)

There are also eagles. The Lord of the Eagles will be here, and Jackson is trying not to have the creatures appear just as feathered deus ex machina.

Tolkien uses eagles in a way that can be kind of awkward because they tend to show up out of the blue and change things pretty quickly. So here they're just part of the plan, not the saviors. I mean, I do realize that if the eagles had just been able to bring Frodo to Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings and let him drop the ring in, those movies would have been much shorter.

Here's the battle plan for the sequence, as given to EW.

 

And here are two more giant images.

Here's the final poster.