The Hobbit star "genuinely thought he was going to be fired" before filming started so he didn't even unpack

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey star Richard Armitage says he was convinced the studio must have made mistake when casting him as Thorin Oakenshield.

"I remember getting to New Zealand to shoot The Hobbit and not unpacking," he told Radio Times. "I genuinely thought I was going to be fired and sent home because they had made the wrong choice."

Armitage first played the complex dwarf king in Peter Jackson's 2012 prequel before going on to reprise the role for two more films: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013 and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. At the time of casting, Jackson described Thorin's character as "somebody that had doubts and that had fears," namely the fear of failing where both his father and grandfather had failed, and added that there was a "gentle side to him and a very perhaps lonely side to him."

Despite receiving mixed reviews, the Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy brought in $2.938 billion total at the global box office. Martin Freeman starred as Bilbo Baggins, with Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Cate Blanchett as Lady Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Lord Elrond, Lee Pace as Thrandull, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and Benedict Cumberbatch as both Smaug and Sauron The Necromancer.

Continued Armitage: "Not in a million years would my nine-year-old self, reading the books, ever have imagined that he'd be starring in the films!"

The Hobbit is streaming on Max. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.