Lord of the Rings fans are used to sets of three, and they have much to anticipate with the upcoming release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The second installment in a planned trilogy of films, the film is set to release next Friday across the United States. The movie picks up where the preceding film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, last left off, leaving a handful of dwarves and a young hobbit named Bilbo Baggins off to reclaim their lost land from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Though only one book was published, director Peter Jackson made the decision to split the movie into three parts, much like director David Yates’s decision to split the final two Harry Potter movies into two parts. Jackson has directed every movie in the entire Lord of the Rings series so far. The first Hobbit movie came out in 2012, the first installment in the series since 2003. The movies borrow lines of dialogue and characterization directly from the books, originally published in 1932. However, concerns have been raised among fans regarding Jackson’s decision to split up the movies. The Hobbit is only about 300 pages long, yet the first movie ran about three hours long. 18-year-old Emerson College student Michael Vitz-Wong expressed his concerns for the expected trilogy, calling it a “money grab”. “The Hobbit is a tiny book,” Vitz-Wong said. “You can read it in a day. It’s not in the same scope as Lord of the Rings by any means. The story could be told in 100 minutes.” Some fans, however, didn’t seem too critical of Jackson’s decision. In fact, some, like 19-year-old Alexis Bradley, thought that splitting the movies was a great idea. “It’s understandable that [Jackson] went that route. The books are only a couple hundred pages, but a lot happens in those pages.” Initially, she had her doubts, but Bradley says that after viewing the first movie, she went back to the book, which is how she changed her mind.