Before he set out on his own adventure in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins was something of a homebody.
The first image of Elijah Wood reprising his role as Bilbo Baggins' young cousin in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is out along with several other new photos from the highly anticipated film, the first in a trilogy directed by LOTR ringmaster Peter Jackson.
And by the looks of things, Frodo's curiosity is piqued, to say the least, by his Uncle Bilbo's decision to join Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) and a band of 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on a quest to the Lonely Mountain.
Bilbo, as played here in The Hobbit by Martin Freeman, stares intently at his trusty short sword, presumably the magical Elvish weapon called Sting, which Bilbo finds in a troll-hoard and which alerts its owner to the presence of orcs by glowing.
The ageless, bearded hippie wizard better known as Gandalf the Grey only appeared in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring before he died and was subsequently resurrected as the more elevated (some say more boring), but more powerful Gandalf the White for the subsequent movies. But the former makes a return engagement for all three Hobbit films, which means we'll likely get a lot more of the jovial, Old Toby-smoking guy who enjoyed blowing smoke rings in the form of sailing ships.
Gandalf, of course, is instrumental in convincing Bilbo to get off his hobbit rump and hit the road with him and his Dwarven companions to find treasure being guarded by the dragon Smaug. McKellen, by the way, told the Hollywood Reporter that he almost didn't return to the role, because it "wasn't necessarily going to be particularly challenging" having already played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. But lucky for Middle-earth fans, he changed his mind.
By the look of fear we'd say he's got on his face, Bilbo naturally gets a lot more than any young hobbit bargained for on his quest.