"I feel like all of the properties from the Tolkien estate have been done now..." hmv.com talks to Richard Armitage

With the final film in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy all wrapped up and flying off the shelves, we caught up with Richard Armitage to discuss playing Thorin Oakenshield for the last time, his work on the new series of Hannibal and learning French fro his latest movie, Pilgrimage...

When did you actually finish working on The Hobbit? Wasn't it a case of doing the first two films at the same time and then going back to film the third?

“Not exactly, but yeah I think there was a period of about 13 weeks of pickups. We'd kind of completed Battle of the Five Armies and then we shaped some parts of the script that had to be changed when it was divided into three films. So it was a combination of all kinds of different things, but yeah there were a lot of extra scenes for the third film that really made sense of the whole journey.”

How do you feel the final film in the trilogy turned out compared to what you were expecting?

“I was really happy with it actually, it contains a lot of the meat of Thorin's story, his descent into madness and then his ascent into heroism when they burst out of the mountain and he redeems himself on the battlefield. So really it was tying up everything that had led Thorin into the mountain, and everything about his relationship with Bilbo is in that third film, so I loved it.

“Added to that was the great action sequence at the end, when the battle kicks off. It's such a huge, epic battle and there are so many narratives that need to be told in that portion of the film, I found it very exciting and it's a fast moving film, which is what I really like about it.”

How long did that sequence take to film, all in all?

“There were so many pieces of it that were shot at different times I couldn't really say for sure, but certainly in terms of my work on it there was probably about 12 weeks of filming. Pretty much all of the pickup period was spent at various points in the battle, but the fighting happened over so many different areas. The dwarves start in the mountain and work their way up to Ravenshill in so many different pockets, which is great though because it really makes it feel like a real battle, you know?"

The last time we spoke you said this will be the last time Middle Earth will appear on screen, do you think that's still the case?

“I certainly think that's the case for Peter Jackson, I don't know if he will revisit it. I feel like all of the properties from the Tolkien estate that are available to be made into films have been done now, so unless something changes there I think that's probably it. I personally would love to see The Silmarillion but I have a feeling that it would just be too much for a movie. Unless Marvel got hold of it, then who knows?!”

Would you like to be involved if it did happen?

“Well, unless they went into a prequel to The Hobbit or something I probably wouldn't be able to, but I'd certainly be interested in looking into Thorin's story before the events of The Hobbit kick off.”