The Hobbit director and lead visionary Guillermo del Toro has confirmed Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen have joined the cast.
The news originated from a BBC Radio 5 Simon Mayo interview via TheOneRing.net and comes straight from del Toro’s mouth. It does not get much more legit than that, folks.
As for which characters the trio will assume, del Toro offers each of the actors will appear “…as the roles they originated in the trilogy.” That means Serkis as Smeagol/Gollum, McKellen as Galdolf and Weaving as Elrond will solidify a substantial link between Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and del Toro’s Hobbit films.
You can listen to the interview over at BBC Radio and catch del Toro’s casting remarks around the 02:10:55 mark.
