2014 Travellers Tales / Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: Sony PlayStation 3 and 4, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PC, Mac and Nintendo 3DS
Following the success of Lego Lord of the Rings, based on/inspired by Peter Jackson’s Oscar winning film trilogy based on the works by JRR Tolkien, Warner Interactive Entertainment and Traveller’s Tales (developer of previous Lego games) began work in 2013 on Lego The Hobbit. Again based on/inspired by Peter Jackson’s films, based on Tolkien’s novel.
The game was released in April 2014 but only featured the story from the first two films – An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug – finishing with Smaug heading to destroy Lake Town. The final instalment in the film trilogy – The Battle of the Five Armies was due for release in December 2014 and it was reported at the London Toy Fair in January 2014 that DLC of the final film would be released following the release of the film.
However, no DLC based on The Battle of the Five Armies was ever to come out and the story in Lego Hobbit remained incomplete. In correspondence with website Gamespot, the DLC wasn’t officially cancelled – there were no longer any plans to adapt the final film as DLC or adapt as another game (which they could have done considering Traveller’s Tales/Warner released a Lego game based solely on the first film of the then new Star Wars sequel trilogy – The Force Awakens).
It is curious to find out if any work was actually ever started on this DLC pack. With work starting on the new Lord of the Rings film – The Hunt for Gollum, could it see the light of day in a new edition of Lego Lord of the Rings / Hobbit pack for the newer consoles? Well, if they can do it for Star Wars with the Skywalker Saga and remastered re-releases of Harry Potter, then why not Middle Earth?
With thanks to Patrick Furlong for producing this entry into the archives.
