Tauriel first appears in the second part of the trilogy, "The Desolation of Smaug", which was released December 13, 2013. Before it was decided to have three films instead of two, Tauriel was described as having a more important role in what was then the final film, " Battle of the Five Armies", which was originally going to be released in 2013. However, when the filmmakers decided to make the series into a trilogy, that part of the story became the third part of the trilogy, which would be released in December 2014.