The Hobbit To Be Delayed?

The Film Stage is reporting that we may not be seeing Peter Jackson‘s upcoming film adaption of The Hobbit next year as planned. This is one of those stories that, along with the possibility of another Saw sequel, we can file under the “say it ain’t so” column.

Apparently Jackson is reconsidering the release of the first part of his epic next year simply because it may not be ready in time for its December 14th release date. Since Warner Bros. is pretty sure they’re going to make a fair amount of money from the films, they are open to delaying the film if needed.

This is, of course, devastating news as we’ve already been waiting for it for some time throughout its many delays, which included budget issues, Guillermo Del Toro‘s departure, and Jackson’s perforated ulcer. Everything seemed to be going well with filming having started several months ago. We’ve even gotten little updates from Jackson and crew through a series of video blogs which haven’t indicated any problems thus far.

Obviously fans want the film as soon as possible, but wouldn’t it be worth the wait to give Jackson enough time to deliver a film that both he and the fans are happy with, even if it means delaying the film an entire year? Perhaps we won’t even have to answer this question as nothing is certain yet. One possible plan would be to bump up Man of Steel from its June 2013 release date to Christmas 2012 as it will be done filming in just a few months with post-production work already occurring. This would bump the first Hobbit film to December 2013 and the second part to December 2014.

In the meantime, a teaser for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is expected with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows next week. There’s still plenty of time for Warner Bros. to sort everything out since we are still over a year away from the release date. Let’s just hope that everything goes according to the original plan.

What do you guys think about the possibility of having to wait a whole extra year for The Hobbit? Let us know in the comments.