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Oh yes, ’tis true my friends — Guillermo Del Toro, the master director who has previously blown our collective mind with the awesome badassery of Hellboy and the euphoric grit and beauty of Pan’s Labyrinth has finally made it official. He will be directing The Hobbit.

Variety is reporting the announcement from Executive Producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich and MGM chief Mary Parent that Del Toro will helm not one, but two Hobbit films. The sequel, as the report states, will deal with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring”, which as you will remember was the first in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Del Toro will move out to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Peter Jackson and his Wingnut and WETA production teams on the two flicks, the first of which will both probably not hit theaters until 2010.

As you well know, Del Toro has been in The Hobbit closet for quite a while. Back in August of last year it appeared that it was a three man race for the job between Del Toro, Spider-Man director Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson himself. After Jackson announced his decision to produce only, it was clear that Del Toro was the frontrunner. In fact, since late last year the speculation has turned into a situation of general awareness, whereas we all pretty much knew that Del Toro was the man, he just wouldn’t say for sure. Well now it is true, mainly because Variety says its true.

Let the casting rumor mongering begin. Let’s get it started — we’ve heard that Samuel L. Jackson is in the running for the voice of Smaug the dragon. As well, we would like to begin lobbying for Peter Dinklage to have a part in the film somewhere. We don’t really care who he plays, he just needs to be there.

Sound Off: Are you surprised that Guillermo Del Toro is directing The Hobbit? (Note: Unlike most of our other “Sound Off” questions, this one is rhetorical.)