This week on Simon Mayo’s BBC radio show Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro, spilled some secrets about his upcoming films, “The Hobbit” and “Frankestein,” whether or not there will be a “Hellboy 3,” and some tidbits about his vampire novel, “The Strain.”

There has been much speculation about whether “The Hobbit,” an adaptation of the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien novel, would be one giant film, two separate features, or even a trilogy. When Mayo asked about the his plans, Guillermo responded that they would be going with the two film idea, saying, “There is a whole other chapter, so to speak, which is the comings and going of Gandalf which are dealt with, people that know the lore know that Gandalf was delayed with a crisis… with a character that is very shady called the Necromancer that proves to be Sauron.”

Del Toro then went on to confirm some casting rumors sure to excite fans of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” film saying, “Ian McKellen is back, [and] Hugo Weaving in the roles they originated in the trilogy…”

Smaug the dragon is a major character and as such is another popular subject of discussion and debate amongst fans.  Del Toro explained that it took and excruciating eight months of design work and they have  only “cracked the basic engineering.” He suspects that another six or seven months of work on Smaug will be required before the dragon will be film-ready.

Here’s a quick rundown of other news gleaned from the interview:

“Blade 4″ – Del Toro will not be directing because of bad blood between Wesley Snipes and New Line.

“Hellboy3″ – Ron Perlman is tired of the prosthetics making Del Toro uncertain that it will ever happen.

“The Strain” feature film – Won’t happen because Del Toro believes six features would be necessary to do it justice.

“Jekyll and Hyde” – Del Toro will only be producing, not directing.

“Frankenstein: – Del Toro is directing and Doug Jones has already been cast as the monster.