Will the Final HOBBIT Film Get a More Exciting New Title?
It's looking like the third and final film in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy could be getting a new and more exciting sounding title. The current title is The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Now thanks to Theonering.net, we've learned that the title could very well be changed to The Hobbit: Into the Fire. The title was registered by New Line at about the same time that they registered The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which was shortly after it was announced that the original two Hobbit movies would be stretched to a trilogy.
There are several reasons for changing the title, and the site offers a list of potential reasons. Some of those reasons include that the current title is inaccurate to where the third movie begins. Into The Fire seems like it would be a better fit for the events that took place in The Desolation of Smaug. There's also the suggestion that the new title pays tribute to the chapter in The Hobbit titled "Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire."
If this turns out to be true, I think the marketing team is just looking to spice the title up a bit to get more people to see the movie. The Hobbit: There and Back Again may be a better, more familiar and nostalgic title, but The Hobbit: Into the Fire definitely sounds more exciting, and people like that kind of thing. I'm not saying it's a better title. I'm just saying from a marketing stand point I can see why they would make the change.
Of course the title change isn't official, so there's always the chance that New Line is just planning some kind of movie tie-in that hasn't been announced yet, and they needed to reserve intellectual property rights. At the same time, it wouldn't surprise me if they did decide to do it.
