So what might have been Elan's super secret plan?

[gbaji]

Amigo, The Hobbit was written and published before WW II, and LotR was completed and published after WW II. As evidenced by the extensive correspondence between Tolkien and his publisher, Tolkien took forever to get out of the Shire and the Northlands and 'get on with it!" ... but he eventually published six books, which became a trilogy (two books each) that we are all familiar with.

I was intentionally pointing out a situation where the books were written in one order, but the films released in another. That's why I said this was "from the film audiences point of view". I'm well aware of the order the books were written. That was exactly the point I was making.