The Hobbit Movies Come to HBO Max

The Hobbit movies have joined The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on HBO Max. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies are among the new additions to HBO Max this month. Together with The Lord of the Rings movies -- The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King -- these movies form a six-film Middle-earth marathon that will likely take an entire weekend to complete. Warner Bros. owns the cinematic rights to JRR Tolkien's fantasy classics, thus it is no surprise to see them on HBO Max. Still, it is interesting since Amazon Prime Video is the streaming service developing the upcoming Lord of the Rings television series.

In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Bilbo Baggins lives a simple life with his fellow hobbits in the shire, until the wizard Gandalf arrives and convinces him to join a group of dwarves on a quest to reclaim the kingdom of Erebor. The journey takes Bilbo on a path through treacherous lands swarming with orcs, goblins and other dangers, not the least of which is an encounter with Gollum and a simple gold ring that is tied to the fate of Middle Earth in ways Bilbo cannot even fathom.

In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Bilbo and his companions continue their journey east and brave many dangers on their way to the Lonely Mountain, culminating in an encounter with the fearsome dragon Smaug.

In The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, having reclaimed Erebor and vast treasure from the dragon Smaug, Thorin Oakenshield sacrifices friendship and honor in seeking the Arkenstone, despite Smaug's fiery wrath and desperate attempts by the Hobbit Bilbo to make him see reason. Meanwhile, Sauron sends legions of Orcs in a sneak attack upon the Lonely Mountain. As the fate of Middle Earth hangs in the balance, the races of Men, Elves and Dwarves must decide whether to unite and prevail -- or all die.

Directed by Peter Jackson, the trilogy stars Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf the Grey, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, and Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Smaug the dragon. Stars who return from The Lord fo the Rings Trilogy include Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, and Andy Serkis. The remaining ensemble cast includes James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Billy Connolly, Graham McTavish, Peter Hambleton, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, William Kircher, Stephen Hunter, Antony Sher, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Manu Bennett, Conan Stevens, John Tui, Sylvester McCoy, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, John Bell, Mikael Persbrandt, Barry Humphries, and Lawrence Makoare.

The Hobbit movies are streaming now on HBO Max.