Billy Connolly, who I know and love from his role as Noah “Il Duce” MacManus in The Boondock Saints 1&2, is going to be joining Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit.
Deadline tells us that Connolly will play Dain Ironfoot, “a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin Oakenshield.”
“We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the staunchest and toughest of Dwarves, than Billy Connolly, the Big Yin himself. With Billy stepping into this role, the cast of The Hobbit is now complete. We can’t wait to see him on the Battlefield!”
With only 100 days or so left of production, and a great deal of the film already shot, it’s surprising that Connolly would come on board this late into it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that he’s joining, I’m just surprised that Jackson left the role open for so long. I thought he would have had his entire cast set months ago. Apparently not though.
What do you think? Are you excited to see Connolly joining the film?
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will be released on December 14, 2012 and the second installment, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, hits theatres on December 13, 2013.