Peter Jackson is fast becoming an old favourite at Comic-Con, and this year’s Hobbit panel only furthered that reputation.

Jackson didn’t hold back when it came to cool quips either, claiming that the 48fps rate would make the next trip to Middle-earth “real, immersive and something you can’t get on your iPad.” Although the footage we saw wasn’t presented in that format.

He also mentioned the tantalising prospect of The Hobbit becoming three films as opposed to two: “We have got incredible source material with the appendices."

"There’s the novel, but then we also have the rights to use the 125 pages of additional notes where Tolkien expanded the world of The Hobbit. I've been talking to the studio about other things that we haven’t been able to shoot and seeing if we could possibly persuade them to do a few more weeks of shooting.”

On The Lord Of The Rings, Jackson said, “I watched it back and thought, 'Christ, that looks like bloody hard work!’”

And Ian McKellen confirmed what we all know when he said, “These movies are being made by the biggest Tolkien fan there is.”

One of the warmest panels of the entire convention, we can’t wait to begin the journey in September.

For more on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, head to totalfilm.com/the-hobbit