On 21 September 2037, it will be one hundred years since The Hobbit or There And Back Again was released to the public. It was written by a meticulous academe named J.R.R. Tolkien, and has become the basis of much of the fantasy literature read today. What most people do not know is that Tolkien did not leave off with just the four books that everyone knows. There existed a whole room full of notes regarding Middle Earth.

Peter Jackson has become most famous for his adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he has now confirmed that The Hobbit will also be a trio of films rather than just a duo. Jackson wrote on Facebook that “It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran [Walsh], Philippa [Boyens] and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie — and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: Do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’”

Jackson also told HitFix that “We have certainly been talking to the studio about some of the material we can’t film, and we’ve been asking them so we can do a bit more filming next year. Which, I don’t know what would come of that, whether it’d be extended editions or whatnot. But those discussions are ongoing.”

The first film will release in December 2012 with each subsequent instalment following after that.

Jackson is likely using materials from the appendixes and notes that Tolkien wrote in and around the four best known of the books. A detailed researcher and academe, Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, a parallel to Midgard in Norse mythology, from a variety of Celtic, Norse, and English folklore and myth.