When we first heard that Peter Jackson was going to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit into two (and then eventually three) films, we knew that he was going to be adding new material to fill out the story and tie it into The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. We saw a few of these additions in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey including appearances by Radagast the Brown, Galadriel, Saruman and the Orc villain Azog. However, there are expected to be even more in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, including a completely original character that was not included in any of Tolkien’s work.

Evangeline Lilly (Lost) will make her first appearance as the Sylvan Elf Tauriel in the next film. She is the head of the Elven Guard and supposedly grew up with Legolas (they may or may not be romantically involved). The character was obviously created in order to mix up what is otherwise basically a sausage party, but I expect some Tolkien purists may not take kindly to it. This week EW released the first photo of Evangeline Lilly in character. Check out a larger version of the image after the jump and let us know what you think.