At last, we meet the biggest and baddest dwarf of The Hobbit: Thorin Oakenshield. For extra geek factor, they’ve given Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver, nearly as much space.

I do stand amazed. Richard Armitage is, if I may say so, quite the dreamboat.   He’s someone I’ve been eager to see escape the confines of British television (where he does do excellent work) and get big blockbuster parts.   When he was announced as  Thorin Oakenshield, it was sort of a “Well…he’s a good actor…but how is that going to work?”

Quite well, from the look of it.   Armitage is quite tall and lean, and they didn’t give us a full-length look, so I’m still curious how they’ll shorten and broaden him.  But there’s very little of the brooding hunk beneath the eyebrows and fake nose.  I was sort of hoping they’d let him rock his looks, like they did Fili and Kili, but they just had to bow to dwarf convention…

The photo debuted on TheOneRing.net, and they have it in full wallpaper size should you so desire it.  (They’ve also got a great mash-up of all the dwarves together in one photo.)  I think I’ll stick with one of Armitage’s MI5/Spooks shots instead…