Sherlock Holmes actor revealed as voice of Smaug the dragon in Peter Jackson's forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast as the voice of the dragon, Smaug, in The Hobbit, Peter Jackson's forthcoming two-part prequel to his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Cumberbatch's casting was accidentally leaked by his co-star in the BBC's Sherlock Holmes TV show, Martin Freeman, at the Bafta TV awards last month. Freeman plays the main role of Bilbo Baggins, a homebody hobbit recruited by wizard Gandalf to help a company of dwarves wrest their ancient homeland from a great dragon in JRR Tolkien's 1937 children's tale. The exact role to be taken by Cumberbatch, who plays Holmes to Freeman's Watson, was unknown until yesterday, however. Jackson himself confirmed the casting via his Facebook page following US reports last week. He also unveiled a number of other castings, including Australian comic Barry Humphries as the goblin king and Evangeline Lilly from TV series Lost as an Elf named Tauriel.

"Evangeline and Barry, along with Welsh actor Luke Evans as Bard and Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug, just about rounds out the major casting," wrote Jackson. "I cannot wait to get stuck into these new scenes!"

As well as playing Smaug, Cumberbatch is voicing the Necromancer, the evil Mirkwood sorcerer who is revealed in the Lord of the Rings to be the evil spirit Sauron.

Other castings for The Hobbit include Stephen Fry (as the Master of Laketown), Sir Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis (returning as Gandalf and Gollum), Spooks's Richard Armitage (dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield) and Sylvester McCoy (wizard Radagast the Brown). The project's two parts are being shot back-to-back in New Zealand, with the films released in December 2012 and 2013.