To say Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit is an ambitious undertaking is a bit of an understatement. What began as a fairly straightforward one-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s classic novel quickly morphed into a sprawling epic told across two feature films. We know that this isn’t necessarily a page-to-screen feature film version of the novel, as Jackson is bringing back many characters from The Lord of the Rings that don’t appear in The Hobbit. Included in this ginormous ensemble is a brand new character created for the film named Tauriel. Lost star Evangeline Lilly plays the character, and she recently spoke quite a bit about what to expect from Turiel, how much she appears in the adaptation, which of the two films she figures into the most, and how long she’s had to be onset. Hit the jump to see what she had to say.

In an interview with EW, Lilly confirmed that Tauriel (a Mirkwood elf) is a bit of a badass:

“She is a warrior. She’s actually the head of the Elven guard. She’s the big shot in the army. So she knows how to wield any weapon, but the primary weapons that she uses are a bow and arrow and two daggers. And she’s lethal and deadly.”

When asked how much she figures into the story, Lilly said that her character has been expanded quite a bit and actually appears in the second film much more than the first:

“She’s not in the first film very much. She comes into the first film near the end, and has a very small part to play. Her role in the second film is much more involved. Although, I have to say, when I first read the scripts and took the job, she had a lot less going on in the second film. I think the role is becoming a bit more demanding that I had expected it to be. There’s a lot more for me to do now, which is a lot of fun, but it’s a little more pressure.”

Lilly said that she’s been filming on and off for the past six months, and she still has to go back for five months of filming. Judging by the amount of time she’s spending on the New Zealand set, I’d assume that she figures pretty prominently into the films. It’ll be interesting to see how Jackson integrates Tauriel with the other characters from the book, and which characters she interacts with the most. For now, we’ve got quite a while to wait. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D December 14th, followed by The Hobbit: There and Back Again in 3D on December 13th, 2013.