The first trailer of The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug has been released. The second part of The Hobbit trilogy following The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, continues the journey of Bilbo Baggins’ (Martin Freeman) journey across with realm of Middle Earth.

Bilbo, alongside a band of dwarves, lead by Thorin (Richard Armitage) and the powerful wizard, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) must reach the Lonely Mountain, in a bid to rid the mountain of the dragon, Smaug and reclaim their homeland.

The trailer shows a quick-glance of Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) for the first time, which would tingle fans of the series, who have been waiting patiently for the arrival of the book’s primary antagonist.

The trailer also shows for the first time, a host of new and returning characters, including Orlando Bloom, returning as the bow-firing elf, Legolas from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Lee Pace‘s Elvenking Thrandui, Mikael Persbrandt‘s Beorn, Luke Evans‘ Bard The Bowman will also make their first appearance in the series. But it was the shots of Lost actress Evangeline Lily‘s elf warrior Tauriel that was greeted with amazement, considering the character is an original creation by director Peter Jackson.

Jackson stated that Tauriel was created to add another female character to a male-dominated show and Lily was happy to accept the role. This followed a number of changes that had been made to the book.

Originally planned as two movies, Jackson announced that there would be a third film, and would feature unwritten parts of JRR Tolkien‘s classic novel, as well as tying in the trilogy with the Lord of the Rings trilogy for continuity.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released in December last year, and took over $1 billion in the box office worldwide. The Desolation Of Smaug will be released again in December this year, with the final part of the trilogy, There And Back Again set for release in 2014.