It's a wrap: The Hobbit finally finishes filming

Sir Ian Murray McKellen and Peter Jackson on the final day of filming The Hobbit trilogy

After over a decade of filming the adventures of the hobbit people in Middle Earth, Peter Jackson is finally done with The Hobbit trilogy, thus completing six films based on the books by JRR Tolkien.

The filmmaker shared pictures of the last day of filming in New Zealand last week on his Facebook page. The images included those of dwarves, crew members and actors Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen, who play the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard. The photo updates began and ended with pictures of Jackson’s cat, Mr. Smudge. The final photo shows the director and feline cuddling, along with the caption: “A long day. A great day. Thank you all for being part of it! Now for some sleep!”

The Hobbit is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and it follows Baggins' adventures and reveals the discovery of the ring. The first film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, opened in December 2012 and took over US$1 billion at box-offices worldwide. The second movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is due this December and the final installment, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release in 2014.