First image of Evangeline Lilly in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

I wasn’t all that impressed with Peter Jackson’s first return to Middle Earth in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” but I’m still anticipating his second installment, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.”

Credit: EW.com
Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel

That’s largely because we’re going to see the return of some kick-tail Elven warriors, including everyone’s favorite Legolas (Orlando Bloom). He’s going to be joined this time by Evangeline Lilly’s (“Lost“) Tauriel, a new character written in to the Hobbit universe by Jackson and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

The Bridge Direct Tauriel figure

EW.com revealed an exclusive shot of Tauriel in action taking aim at some enemy, but we’ve already seen what Tauriel would look like thanks to the fine folks at The Bridge Direct, which unveiled a Tauriel figure last year as part of its initial roll-out of “The Hobbit” 6″ figures.

What do you think? Does Tauriel look like she could keep up with Legolas and Gimli in their “enemy kill scoreboard?”