‘The Hobbit’ officially casts Orlando Bloom

Orlando Bloom gets to play the role of the hot elf Legolas once more, this time in another film adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel—The Hobbit.

Years after Peter Jackson won an Oscar for the trilogy that crossed a thousand lands because of the ring of power; he is yet again prepping to direct another film that focuses on the humble but adventurous lives of the little creatures we all learned to love—the hobbits.

Jackson officially announced in Facebook that Bloom will be included in the flick, but has not yet revealed how Legolas will appear in the story. With the script still being finalized, all Shire-loving folk will get to relive the fantasy that the previous installments of the Lord of the Rings left everyone with.

This first installment of The Hobbit, which is being eyed to be in movie houses by the end of 2012, tells the story of Bilbo Baggins when he was still young. He travels to the Lonely Mountain together with some dwarves and together they try to get back a treasure that was stolen from their people by Smaug (a dragon).

Together with Bloom as Legolas, other former characters will be back– like Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett). Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen will be joining them as well.

While Martin Freeman is already the official pick for the role of Bilbo Baggins, other famous stars like David Tenant, Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Shia LaBeouf and Erryn Arkin were all rumored to play the part.

Also, while the official director is now the Academy Award winner Peter Jackson, the position to be the captain of the Middle Earth ship was Guillermo del Toro which then dropped out after MGM froze the project and New Zealand unions tried to ban the film from being shot there again.