Many of the stars of director Peter Jackson‘s epic trilogy adaptation of The Lord of the Rings have been expected to return for his adaptation of author J.R.R. Tolkien‘s first classic in the realms of Middle Earth, The Hobbit. And while not all of the actors have been confirmed yet — Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis, specifically — it’s still assumed that everyone is on board. How could they not want to anyway, right?

One name you might never have thought was returning, however, would be that of a one Mr. Elijah Wood, who famously played the lead character of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Frodo is the “nephew” of Bilbo Baggins (played by Ian Holm first and to be played by Martin Freeman in the new films), who’s the main character of The Hobbit, which is set many years prior when he was but a young lad.

But despite what you may think, it’s being reported that Elijah Wood will indeed be joining the cast of The Hobbit. But in what aspect? Can this possibly work, or is the mythology messed up with Frodo’s inclusion? Keep in mind: in The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo began as a 33-year-old, and 17 whole years passed between the time Bilbo left Frodo the ring and the time that Gandalf returned to Bag End.

Click on over to the other side to find out exactly how Elijah Wood’s Frodo will play into Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit!

OK, so I may have teased you along a bit — Frodo will not be appearing as a main character in the new two-part adaptation of The Hobbit. Instead, Peter Jackson will use Frodo at the beginning of both films, and it sounds like as we the viewer are told the tale of Bilbo Baggins, Frodo will be hearing it as well. Apart from that shaky description specifics are unknown, but it’s likely that this will be one of the ways they bridge The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings. If you’ll recall, there was a plan at one point to make an entire original movie connecting the two, but that was dropped to allow for The Hobbit to be separated into two parts.

Some may be skeptical of how things are going, but for passionate fans of the trilogy, it should be pretty exciting to see most of those involved with LOTR coming back in some aspect or another. When it’s all said and done, I’d expect most of them to have at least made brief and entertaining cameos, if not more significant contributions.

What do you guys think?

[Source: The One Ring via Collider]