I'm sure it has mostly to do with that same old thing of "people who haven't seen LotR need to be informed," but in fairness everybody's bloody well seen it by now.
On the contrary, I know a lot of people in my country who haven't seen LOTR. I was viewed weird because I loved LOTR. Then again, English is not the mother tongue.
But yeah, for the English speaking world, LOTR was viewed so many times you can actually memorize the lines, like "don't tell the Elf"
I can get that some people might enjoy getting filled in about the LotR parts, but, Tolkien wrote and published the Hobbit first, and did the LotR a while later. The Hobbit was meant to be, and was only able to be, enjoyed without reference to LotR when it first came out.
Yep, but some folks really love the references even though they are so in your face and Peter is going after that crowd. I say, Legolas was unnecessary but acceptable, and Tauriel should be eliminated.