The dragon Smaug, played via the magic of motion capture and special effects by British actor Benedict Cumberpatch, appeared only briefly as an awakening eye in last year's An Unexpected Journey, the first of Jackson's three-movie adaption of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel "The Hobbit."
The new Hobbit film, subtitled The Desolation of Smaug and due in theatres in mid-December, continues the quest of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), and a troop of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to retrieve the treasures of the dwarf kingdom of Erebor, which was plundered by Smaug in a previous age.
The new trailer also includes Orlando Bloom reprising his role as the elf Legolas, his character from Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and introduces Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, a new elf character created just for the movie adaption of Tolkien's book.