The trouble I'm noticing with removing Azog completely is that he may be too integrated into the Battle of Five Armies by the 3rd movie. It's obvious that he was a late addition to the production, so I'm hoping it won't be too hard to remove him. The Bolg character in the 2nd movie may have to stay because his character introduction is made THROUGH Azog. So we're kind of screwed there.

The whole tree chase/eagle rescue sequence, I feel, is an all-or-nothing kind of thing because you have to show Thorin get hurt, and then when the eagles drop the company off on that mountain the film is clearly building to a conclusion when we really want it to be a continuation into the next scene. With the way I have it set up at the moment, the orcs & wargs begin chasing the dwarves and it will then merge with them running to Beorn's house. No eagles, no pointless anti-climatic showdown between Thorin and Azog. I know the eagles were a part of the book but let's face it, they are a deus ex machina that I think we can all agree get kind of annoying.