First look at The Hobbit cast

Though Lord Of The Rings alumni Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood are absent, it does give us a good look at our Tolkien newbies.

So that’s Martin Freeman to the right, with James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage and William Kircher all present.

They all met together at a press conference in Wellington. Sadly, Peter Jackson was unable to attend owing to his medical problems.

Filming on The Hobbit is finally set to commence in New Zealand on 21 March, so this is just the first of many images we’re bound to have flooding in from the production in the coming months.

The Hobbit Part 1 opens December 2012.

Source: Stuff