Aussie actress Cate Blanchett will reprise her role as Galadriel in the upcoming two-part film adaptation of The Hobbit, the prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

Galadriel does not appear as a character in The Hobbit book. But other writings of Tolkien’s reveal that during his disappearance in the middle of the story, Gandalf the Wizard, with the White Council, attacked the evil Necromancer at Dol Guldur, only to learn that this malevolent presence was Sauron returned. The White Council consisted of Galadriel the Elf-queen (Blanchett), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Elrond Half-elven (Hugo Weaving), Saruman the Wizard (Christopher Lee), Radagast the Wizard (Doctor Who’s Sylvester McCoy has been cast), Celeborn the Elf-king (Marton Csokas), and Cirdan the Shipwright (as yet not cast — he was portrayed by an extra in LOTR).

Jackson revealed some time ago that he planned to include extra canonical material that does not appear in The Hobbit, so as to better tie the story together with LOTR. Other characters from the first film trilogy that could logically appear in The Hobbit include Legolas Greenleaf (Orlando Bloom), Arwen Evenstar (Liv Tyler), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies, who has stated he does not wish to participate).