Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie joins 'The Hobbit' cast

Peter Jackson is doing something special for the ladies of the world in "The Hobbit": He's added Flight of the Conchords member Bret McKenzie to the cast.

McKenzie will play an elf named Lindir, Variety reports. "The Hobbit" began shooting a couple weeks ago and will continue into next year; as he did with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Jackson is shooting the two parts of this story back-to-back.

When we look at McKenzie, we think hobbit, but he actually has some experience playing an elf. As a certain strain of hard-core "LOTR" fan already knows, he appeared as an extra in "The Fellowship of the Ring" and popped up again in "The Return of the King," where he actually had a couple lines. (Both films were released before Flight of the Conchords broke out.)

McKenzie wasn't credited in the first movie, but fans dubbed him Figwit (an acronym for Frodo Is Great ... Who Is THAT?). He was credited as "Elf Escort" in "Return of the King."

Part one of "The Hobbit" is scheduled to hit theaters in December 2012.