Sir Ian Holm (who played Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) has been stated to return for his role as Bilbo, but an older version in the upcoming Hobbit movies. He was contacted recently to request doing so but he has said he has yet to hear back from the producers.
Here is a direct quote:
“I don’t know what’s happening,” the 79-year-old actor admitted to me at the Saatchi Gallery. “I haven’t heard anything for weeks.”
“I had great fun playing Baggins in the first two films and the plan had been, with Martin Freeman playing Young Baggins, I would be the Old Baggins,” he adds. “I suppose the earthquake in Christchurch couldn’t have helped with communications.”
Sophie de Stempel, Sir Ian’s wife, tells me: “I worry that the film has run into so much bad luck that they might have missed their chance altogether.”