Evangeline Lilly has described the chance to play a brand new character in The Hobbit trilogy as 'liberating.'
Lilly was introduced as Tauriel In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug last year, and is set to return in The Battle of the Five Armies in the third and final film.
Tauriel is a brand new character created by Peter Jackson and does not feature in the original novel. And the actress was excited about getting the chance to create this new character.
Speaking SFX Magazine, the actress said: "It was totally liberating that Tauriel was a new character.
"I was, of course, aware that I would be under deeper scrutiny because people would be wanting to hate her, but once the decision was made to do it, then it was nothing but a blessing.
"At that point it was all about, 'Let's create the best character possible so that people have to fall in love with her' instead of, 'How do I live up to 50 years of people envisioning this character?'"
Lilly may have been one of few women to feature in The Hobbit trilogy, but Tauriel is one of the strongest characters in the series, who produces some of the best act moments and sequences.
She continued: "It was a very cold-blooded decision to cast a female character because there's a lot of strength in women within the Elvish rank.
"We just wanted to have a really great kick-ass chick, basically."
The Hobbit marks the first time that Lilly has worked with Jackson and the franchise sees her star alongside Orlando Bloom, Martin Freeman, Lee Pace, Richard Armitage, and Aidan Turner.
And we are going to see more of Lilly in the big budget blockbuster as she is currently filming Ant-Man - the latest movie from Marvel.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is released 12th December.
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