I am obsessed with the trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I’ve seen it on and off in theaters for a while now and my excitement builds with every viewing. The Hobbit even graced the cover of this past week’s  Entertainment Weekly, so clearly I’m not the only one who is waiting with bated breath for this movie’s release.

Peter Jackson is at the helm of yet another Tolkien wonderland.  Originally, Guillermo del Toro was slated to direct the LOTR prequel, but backed off when the project kept stalling in production. Personally, I am thrilled that Jackson is back for more. I could understand Jackson’s potential fear of being pigeonholed as a director or wanting to change-up his perspective, but I couldn’t imagine a better point of view for The Hobbit.

Fans of the original Jackson series will be glad to see familiar faces in the new film. Actors Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, and Hugo Weaving (Gandalf, Galadriel, Legolas, and Elrond respectively) will return for The Hobbit’s adaptation. Jackson also discussed some story expansion of some of these old favorites in order to extend the release into a two film series. Tolkien purists hopefully won’t be too upset  because the material is mostly taken from the writer’s other works.

The thing that I’m looking forward to the most are the thirteen dwarfs. Jackson told EW that his biggest struggle is defining each of the thirteen new characters as individuals since the book is at times vague with character description. The portion of the trailer where Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) stares in to the fire and sings, his baritone resonating through the space, fuels my Hobbit obsession like no other. I have been humming the tune sporadically for months. I cannot wait to see how this vast cast of characters develops.

Is anyone else obsessed? What are you most looking forward to?