Trivia

Asked how many wizards there are, Gandalf says there are five, naming Saruman, Radagast, and himself, then saying he can't remember the names of the other two, merely saying, "The two blues". Their names, Alatar and Pallando, appear in the book Unfinished Tales, a collection of J.R.R. Tolkien ideas and half-manuscripts edited into book form by his son Christopher Tolkien. The filmmakers didn't have rights to use material from that book, so the two blue wizards remain unnamed in this movie.

In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the scale illusion was accomplished by placing Hobbit or Dwarf actors and actresses farther away from the camera than Sir Ian McKellen, but still live on the same set. This time, however, the illusion had to be accomplished by having the other actors and actresses on a completely different set, while McKellen performed his part, all alone, on a greenscreen set, with only an earpiece connecting him to the performance being provided by the rest of the cast. McKellen ended up feeling lonely and frustrated. To cheer him up, the cast and crew snuck into the tent in which he stayed during breaks and decorated it with mementos from the Lord of the Rings films (mainly old props and tapestries from Rivendell and Lothlórien), as well as fresh fruit and flowers.

Gollum appears in only one scene in the book. Andy Serkis completed that scene during the first week of production, but stayed on as second unit director.

The production team returned to the same shooting location for Hobbiton as they used in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The land is part of a farm, which the owners allowed to be transformed into the Hobbiton set by The Lord of the Rings production crew in the late 1990s. After filming wrapped on the first trilogy, the farm's owners turned the land into a Tolkien tourism spot, offering guided tours of the Hobbiton set. With the crew from The Hobbit trilogy making improvements and additions to the aging Hobbiton set, the farm owners were happy to temporarily close down their tourism business, so filming could take place there again.

Viggo Mortensen declined to reprise his role as Aragorn, citing that Aragorn wasn't in the book. Aragorn is briefly alluded to in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).

Peggy Nesbitt, Mary Nesbitt: Children in the City of Dale, during the prologue.

Katherine Jackson: A young Hobbit, in the flashback in the Old Took's party, in an extended scene.

Glenn Boswell: The Dwarf miner who discovers the Arkenstone.

Luc Campbell: A young Hobbit, in the market, at the Green Dragon, in an extended scene.

Jabez Olssen: The Dwarf, right of Thorin, running for his life, as the Dwarves flee from Smaug's attack on Erebor.

Peter Jackson: The Dwarf running past the camera in front of Thorin, as the Dwarves flee from Smaug's attack on Erebor.