Attendees of the San Diego Comic-con this past weekend got their first look at Peter Jackson’s finale to his filmed trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. But if you weren’t able to attend the Warner Bros. panel in Hall H on Saturday morning then you’re in luck, because the studio released the first teaser to the general public today. As you might expect, it’s a pretty grim affair.

The new trailer shows plenty of chases, battle sequences, and angry beasts, but there are also a few somber shots of a fallen Gandalf and a troubled Bilbo Baggins who looks as if the entire journey has taken a heavy emotional toll on him. If you saw the previous film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, then it’s no surprise there’s even a shot of the titular dragon himself laying waste to Laketown with fire.

Fans of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy will immediately recognize the song Mist and Shadow from the third film in that franchise, Return of the King. The stirring ballad strikes a bleak tone, foreshadowing the events that lead up to the start of the Fellowship of the Ring.

But there’s one thing that is noticeably absent from this teaser for the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy: hobbits. There are plenty of elves, with considerable time spent on showcasing Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, and even Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel character, in addition to dwarves and orcs. Those familiar with the book know Bilbo takes a back seat to the events in this portion of the story and it appears the film follows suit.

An unabashed fan of Tolkien’s works, Peter Jackson has spent over half a decade adapting the author’s two most famous novels into films. During his appearance at Comic-con over the weekend, he said that this film is not meant to rival the third installment in his previous trilogy. Instead, it’s the darkest of any of the six movies in his Tolkien adaptations. He’s called The Battle of the Five Armies “the most emotional, the most tense of the three. It’s my favorite of the three.”

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opens on December 17th.