No complaints here if they can find a sane, logical reason to include him in the plot, but... where? When? How?

I wonder if they're going to use him instead of Bard. That would almost make sense, given that he's a terribly important character who (in classic Tolkien fashion) really kind of pops out of nowhere in the book. I can see replacing him with Aragorn working decently well... saves people from trying to figure out who this guy is and how he fits into the picture, while extending the existing mythos of Aragorn's travels as a Ranger before he became king...