‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Trailer Is All Kinds of Badass (VIDEO)

Well, we know where we'll be in December: freezing our asses off in line for the next Middle Earth installment, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Warner Brothers dropped the official trailer today and it looks all kinds of badass.

It begins with that question we've all been dying to ask Peter Jackson, 'Where does your journey end?' (The answer: Two freaking Christmases from now when the final installment hits theaters.)  No matter, in the meantime we get to see some Dwarves riding in barrels, a pissed-off Legolas, and -- holy crap, a dragon -- yeah, a dragon. While we're probably not going to see this dragon get his due this year, we're definitely going to see old Smaug fly and shoot flames and all of that stuff that inspires man-childlike wonderment.

This trailer gets bonus points for showing us a little more of that lady-warrior elf, Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly. Since she's not in the books, we have absolutely no idea whether or not we'll be cringing through her scenes or cheering her on. We get the hint that it will be mostly cheering, if for no other reason than she's the only female character in the movie.