Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Pope
Posted by: Mr Church Sir
It's a prequel. Nothing time travel about it. It's like the Hobbit as part of the Lord of the Rings. No time travel was involved.
Actually they are going to change that in the new film. When Bilbo leaves Middle-Earth on the grey ship, he doesnt go into the west, but instead accidently travels back in time somehow without passing through any anomaly. He then arrives in Hobbiton and warns everyone about Sauron. Its going to be epic.