If there were an Oscar for Most Ominous Voice, Benedict Cumberbatch would surely win it for for his work in 2013. First he had his turn as the villain in Star Trek Into Darkness; next up it will be his "grating" impression of Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate; then, come December, he will take on the most menacing voice of all: the titular dragon in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.
And thanks to the latest trailer for Peter Jackson's second installment in the Hobbit trilogy, we're finally getting a taste. "Where are you? Come now, don't be shy... Step into the light," the dragon snarls, in the same booming voice that said, "Shall we begin?" in all of those Into Darkness promos. Shudder.
Of course, just because the new trailer offers the voice of the dragon doesn't mean there are actually any images of him, though Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) claims that "the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, oh Smaug, the stupendous." There was actually more Smaug to see in the first trailer, even if we never heard his voice. Maybe one day – sometime prior to the actual release of the film – we'll get both. But that may be asking too much.
But what the trailer lacks in dragon, it makes up for in action, largely focusing on the Dwarves of Erebor and their quest to reclaim Lonely Mountain with welcome appearances from Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel. Hopefully, that means the second Hobbit installment – out Dec. 13 – has moved fully past the eating-dinner-and-singing-around-a-fire stage and into the actual adventure phase. Hopefully.
