The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - first trailer

The first action-packed teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been released.

The second instalment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, which is released on Friday December 13, continues straight on from last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and will be followed in December 2014 by the final chapter, The Hobbit: There and Back Again. All three films were shot at the same time.

Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage and Orlando Bloom all return, and are joined by a host of new characters — some of which don't feature in the book — including Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel and Manu Bennett as Azog.