Though Martin Freeman will be playing the younger version of Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming two-part production of The Hobbit, Peter Jackson has confirmed today that the original Lord of the Rings trilogy’s version of the Bag End resident will be back as well.
The writer/director posted the following on his Facebook page:
One comment that came up from the recent video blog was the Bilbo voice at the endmany of you assumed it was Sir Ian Holm. Whilst Ian will be returning as the older Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, that recording was actually Martin Freeman’s voice, taken from a script read through we recorded when the cast first arrived. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure who it was when I first heard it, either. Cheers, Peter J
Holm will join the enormous cast that already includes, in addition to Freeman, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Rob Kazinsky, Aidan Turner, Graham McTavish, John Callen, Stephen Hunter, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, James Nesbitt, Adam Brown, Cate Blanchett, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Mikael Persbrandt, Ryan Gage, Jed Brophy, William Kircher, Saoirse Ronan, Elijah Wood and Bret McKenzie.
The first film is entering production now with a tentative release date of December, 2012.
