The release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again, part 3 of the franchise and the follow-up to The Desolation of Smaug, has been confirmed for Dec. 18.

Fans are eagerly awaiting the the last in The Hobbit trilogy and rumored plot details about the film have started to surface on the internet.

Tauriel will be faced with the choice between accompanying Legolas -- who will survive and live -- on his mission to the Lonely Muontain or stay back with the hobbits. It is also being suggested that Gandalf wil be released from prison.

Director Peter Jackson had previously told Yahoo! that there could be a massive clash -- as in J.R.R. Tolkien's original novel -- between the elves, men, dwarves, and goblins, when they arrive at the Lonely Mountain. 

In a recent interview with Hypable, Jackson spoke about his decision to break the story into three parts, making it a trilogy, suggesting he wanted to give it a similar structure as he gave The Lord of the Rings.

"You want the narrative to be told either through the dialogue or the actions, so that's really why we ended up with the depth and exploring the character depth that we had done on The Lord of the Rings," he said.

The director went on to speak about needing three parts to engage the complexity of the story.

"I was also acutely aware that there was going to be, ultimately, when this cycle of releasing a movie each year is done, you're going to end up with six films. The Unexpected Journey being the beginning and the Return of the King being the end. I did want to have a unity. I didn't want to make The Hobbit feel any more simple. We wanted it to feel like it was the same," he said.

Watch the trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug below.