In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, female stars played characters of more elegant races like Liv Tyler’s elven Arwen and Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel, but as reported by The One Ring, The Hobbit-- a movie mostly about dwarves--will feature a female leading lady.

Other than that bare bones announcement, the article just speculates on the possibilities. The author purports that because this female role is being cast so early in the process, it must be a featured role. Given that there are no major explicitly female characters in the original book, it's possible that this actress would be voicing an animated character, or hey, maybe one of the dwarves accompanying Bilbo on his journey might be a girl after all!

Just as much of a surprise as the news of a female leading role is that the casting process is underway at all. Between MGM’s financial troubles and numerous filming delays, it seems as though we’ll be waiting three years, if not longer, for The Hobbit. But, according to the site’s unnamed source, casting is ‘without doubt’ underway.

Another source say, “Budget, casting and schedule need to be approved by the studio to be greenlit.” The One Ring deduces that that must mean executive producer Peter Jackson and co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro are hard at work formulating a budget, cast and schedule. Er - that seems like a decent analysis to me.

I’d like to hope the news is true so we can finally put the massive amount of rumors behind us and get some valid juicy details. If this casting news is in fact true, I’d like to bet those details will arrive very soon.