Dame Edna is the Goblin King! Elementary, my dear Smaug...

[Lalaith]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/20/hobbit-casting-facebook-tolkien-barry-humphries

[Rumil]

And another Mary-Sue-iel...

The Canadian actor Evangeline Lilly, who starred in Lost, will also be in the film, Jackson said. Since strong female roles are thin on Middle Earth in Tolkien's work, they've invented a role for her as Tauriel, a woodland elf. "Her name means 'daughter of Mirkwood' and, beyond that, we must leave you guessing!"
:rolleyes:

Though I approve of Cumberbatch as Smaug, and bizarrely I think Dame Edna will make a good Great Goblin, Sir Les Patterson is described as "Obese, lecherous and offensive, this farting, belching, nose-picking figure of Rabelaisian excess is an antipodean Falstaff." which bodes well!

[TheMisfortuneTeller]

And another Mary-Sue-iel...

The Canadian actor Evangeline Lilly, who starred in Lost, will also be in the film, Jackson said. Since strong female roles are thin on Middle Earth in Tolkien's work, they've invented a role for her as Tauriel, a woodland elf. "Her name means 'daughter of Mirkwood' and, beyond that, we must leave you guessing!"
:rolleyes:

The "Itaril" thread contains an extended -- and likely, ongoing -- treatment of Murkwood Mary Sue ("Murky," for short) rebranded this time around as "Taruiel," which means "Daughter of a pejorative name that Men gave to Greenwood Forest starting in the year 1050 of the Third Age" (or something like that). For Peter Jackson and Company, Arwen at Helms Deep will never die. They just can't let go of a really bad idea once it takes hold of them.