Today marks the end of an epic trilogy that concludes the greatest series of movies in the history of the American movie industry, commonly compared with the Harry Potter and Star Wars series. The multi-billion dollar franchise is coming to a close after 13 years of incredible adaptations of the three books that altogether spawned an enormous fan base.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will conclude the collection of movies that have attracted an incredible number of fans that can’t wait to see what will happen. Several will even go to the midnight premiere of the movie to watch it before most.

“”My parents and I are huge fans of the movies, and my dad is taking me to the midnight premiere with him, something I’ve never done for a movie before,” junior Mahlate Bereket said.

Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were written by J. R. R. Tolkien, a writer who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries. He created a collection of books that take place in Middle-Earth, the fictional setting that Tolkien created.

The Hobbit, which was only one book in contrast to the three movies made from it, is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, which had three volumes, and, as a book, was released first. However, the movie series for The Hobbit was released after its sequel.

“Harry Potter and The Hobbit definitely have to be some of my favorite books and movies,” junior Kirk Lindberg said.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring first premiered in theaters on Dec. 19, 2001. This brought about the beginning of a trilogy that would change fantasy film history forever. The next two films, The Two Towers and Return of the King, premiered on Dec. 18, 2002 and Dec. 17, 2003, respectively.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released on Dec. 14, 2012 and its sequel, The Desolation of Smaug, premiered almost exactly a year later on Dec. 13, 2014.

There was a nine year break between the final Lord of the Rings movie and the first Hobbit movie, a break in which many fans were left wondering as to whether the prequel series would be a reality. The prequel trilogy originally started as a rumour by devout fans of the original trilogy. Peter Jackson, the director behind the extraordinary story written by Tolkien, kept those rumours under wraps, making it more exciting when it was officially announced.

“I read some of the books and loved them, especially The Hobbit, and the movies made the series even better,” sophomore Saud Shah said.

The Lord of the Rings movies were huge hits in the box office, making a total of $2,917,506,956 from the three movies. The Hobbit movies are close behind and have a chance of beating that record, with $1,975,370,423 made with the first two films.

“I hope I can see it at midnight, and if I can’t I’ll go the next day cause I want to see it as early as possible,” Shah said.

The movie will pick up directly where The Desolation of Smaug ended, with the dragon known as Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) on his way to attack a small town on a lake, fittingly named Lake-town, after finding out that Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) cared about the people. Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) angered the nefarious beast by pouring melted gold on it, the pain being the motivation for the dragon to set off as quickly as he did.

The end of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug left viewers in awe and already hoping to see the next film as soon as possible. However, the fans were forced to wait a year to witness the finale of the saga.

“I watched all the Lord of the Rings movies with my brothers when I was little and loved them, so I was really excited when The Hobbit finally came out in theaters,” sophomore Lucie Lefbom said.

As evidenced from the trailer for the final movie, several of the actors and actresses from the original trilogy returned to play the characters they originally played. Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellan), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Elrond (Hugo Weaving) are some of the few.

Recently, Jackson announced that there will be a 45 minute battle scene, hence the name Battle of the Five Armies. Jackson explained the battle scene coherently in an interview. In addition, Jackson said that the battle will include dwarves, men, elves and orcs.

The series has fans that attend, and in some cases, teach at AHS and are eager to watch the final movie.

Senior Lorenzo Aluning spoke about how impactful this series was to his life. “This movie is going to be a turning point in my life, that is how important this movie is, because it changed the way I looked at the world.”

Even English teacher Sean Hardy loved the series and gave his opinion on the Hobbit trilogy and the upcoming movie. “I think the first two Hobbit movies were average, but the last one has potential,” Hardy said.

Hardy thinks the preview of the movie“”looks cool” and is excited to watch the battle scenes and the updated CGI. He also added how he was disappointed that such a short book was split into a trilogy of movies.

The movie has fans expecting a superb ending, even the ones who have read the book and know what is to come. The film will finish off one of the greatest franchises to ever be created and amaze fans and critics alike.