Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. This is pretty awesome news, actually. Billy Connolly not only joins The Hobbit, but he's going to be playing a badass warrior dwarf!

Mike Fleming at Deadline got the scoop that Connolly will be playing Dain Ironfoot, Thorin's cousin who answers the call to arms that becomes the Battle of the Five Armies.

Ironfoot's clan of dwarves are badass warriors even by dwarf standards and I can just see Connolly chewing the scenery just right.

So, there you go. Filming has started back up in Wellington and will wrap this summer. Now that I'm out of Sundance and have put a lot of my backlog of stories and interviews to bed I'll be returning to my Hobbit set reports. Still a ton of great stuff to come, including a visit to Beorn's house, helicopter flights up mountains and observations from the edge of Mirkwood.

Stay tuned!

-Eric Vespe

”Quint”

quint@aintitcool.com

Follow Me On Twitter