As promised when the first poster unexpectedly journeyed online yesterday, the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has arrived, along with no fewer than eight official images from the middle entry in this new Middle Earth trilogy.

Right in the middle of the summer event movie season, Warner Bros. is keen to remind moviegoers that this winter also brings a hugely expensive sequel based on a beloved property.

The first teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is now online, presaging the coming of the inaugural teaser trailer for the second installment of Peter Jackson's movie trilogy adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's introductory Middle Earth novel.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is bringing an entirely new character to Middle Earth, one not found in J.R.R Tolkien's original novel or any supplemental writings.

That character is the elf warrior Tauriel.  We've seen some blurry, unsanctioned images of her, but today brings the first crisp and official look at Evangeline Lilly in character.  Not only that, but the actress is offering a whole lot of teasing insight on Tauriel and her role in the story.

If you bought The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Blu-ray or DVD, then you got an access code to participate in or just watch a big live event teasing the next installment in this three-movie adaptation of a fairly slight children's story, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

If you didn't buy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Warner Bros. still has you covered. A six-minute snippet of the live event is now available freely, allowing for a peek behind the scenes that includes looks at Luke Evans and Evangeline Lilly as new characters like Bard the Bowman and Tauriel the Elf.

Let's keep this reasonably brief:

Warner Bros. has rescheduled the concluding installment in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy, pushing The Hobbit: There and Back Again to December 17, 2014.

If you're whiling away the hours until The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey premieres in New Zealand, then we have a tremendous way for you to kill about forty seconds.  The inaugural clip from the movie is now going on an entirely expected journey online, showing off an exchange between Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen.

Today, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey premieres in Wellington, New Zealand, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy before it.  The first-third of Peter Jackson's new Middle Earth adaptation will get the full red carpet treatment, and though most of us can't skip down to New Zealand to take a peek, we can all watch the proceedings online, live as they happen.

With less than two months until the theatrical release, we'll soon be crushed in an avalanche of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey promotion.  Warner Bros. has caused a huge amount of snow to begin rolling downhill already, as posters have started popping up out in the world and the first official TV spot has debuted online.

After a huge spike in The Hobbit-related online promotion during Tolkien Week last month, including a theatrical trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, things have been pretty quiet in Middle Earth for a little while now. 

So why not break your Hobbit-y fast with five new images from the first third of Peter Jackson's new adaptation.

Over the next two months, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will dominate the advertising and pop-cultural landscape to the extent that Warner Bros. might very well start buying space on the insides of your eyelids so that every blink reminds you of the new Middle Earth-set movie.  We're not there yet, though, so check out four new banners from the first entry in Peter Jackson's trilogy adapting J.R.R Tolkien's slight fantasy adventure.