Guillermo del Toro championed the creation of she-elf Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

Guillermo del Toro was responsible for championing the creation of female elf Tauriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug .

During his time working on the Hobbit films, the Mexican filmmaker became concerned by the lack of female characters in the narrative.

That led to the creation of the elf played by Evangeline Lilly, the only main character in the film not to be taken from the pages of JRR Tolkien’s book.

Co-writer Philippa Boyens revealed Del Toro’s contribution to the film while out promoting The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug this week.

“He was there when we decided [ on ] the female character,” Boyens says. “And he was very much a strong supporter of that.

“What was nice about it is that you’re taking a risk. You’re messing with somebody else’s story, and you have to kind of do it the right way. And [d el Toro ] was someone who was, like, ‘ Yes , we should do this!’”

Funnily enough, Evangeline Lilly herself wasn’t aware of del Toro’s input in the creation of her character until after she'd wrapped.

“I never met Guillermo,” she says. “I never spoke to Guillermo. I never had the good grace of meeting him myself, so I just assumed it was Pete [ Jackson ], Fran [ Walsh ] and Phil that came up with her.”

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug is out in cinemas now.