‘Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ – Everything We Know So Far

There are a lot of new projects coming out of Middle-earth, but The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is particularly unique. This animated feature film is slated for release on Dec. 13, 2024 and its press tour is finally starting to pick up. Here’s a look at what we know about this movie so far.

The War of the Rohirrim is written by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, and it will feature anime-style animation from director Kenji Kamiyama. It is the first title produced by New Line Cinema in its planned return to the Lord of the Rings franchise, but we now know that the live-action Hunt for Gollum will follow close behind. Both of these projects are completely separate from Amazon Studios’ The Rings of Power. War of the Rohirrim will flesh out an interesting but obscure story from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional history, starting about 105 years before the events of The Hobbit. Here’s what we know about this movie so far.

Story

The War of the Rohirrim is set 183 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and about 105 years before the events of The Hobbit. The story is about King Helm Hammerhand, ruler of the nation of Rohan – the kingdom of “horse lords” that aided Aragorn, Legolas and Gimle in the main series. This movie will depict Rohan’s war against the Dunlendings – a mountain-dwelling culture displaced by the men of Rohan.

This obscure bit of history was actually referenced in the novels as well as Jackson’s movies. The surviving Dunlendings were persuaded to join the side of Saruman in The War of the Ring because of their generational resentment for Rohan. Presumably, The War of the Rohirrim will explain how that resentment became so strong. However, the story will focus mainly on Helm Hammerhand, for whom the stronghold Helm’s Deep was named, and on his daughter, Hèra.

Framing Device

The most exciting announcement about this movie was the inclusion of actress Miranda Otto reprising her role as Éowyn. The main trilogy shows Éowyn gaining confidence and fighting as a shieldmaiden against the forces of Sauron, eventually killing the Witch King of Angmar herself with the iconic line: “I am no man.”

While Éowyn will not appear in this movie directly, she will narrate the movie when needed. This framing device gives an opportunity to include Otto, providing a sense of continuity with the live-action movies and helping viewers to quickly understand the setting in time and place. Otto is listed near the top of this cast but it’s not clear how prevalent her narration will be in the movie. It’s also not clear who she is telling the story to or when, but many fans have their theories.

Otto discussed the project with an interview from Metro this summer. She said that Boyens was the one who called her and asked if she would be interested in the job, “and I said yes because I thought it would be interesting to return to the character. There is not an enormous amount I have to do but it was a fun way to keep the character going in some way so many years later… It’s been fun going back and finding the voice again and trying to think of the character older and see if it is similar enough to my voice back then.”

Cast

The main hero King Helm Hammerhand will be played by actor Brian Cox, while his daughter Hèra will be played by Gaia Wise. With no son, Hammerhand’s acknowledged successor is his nephew Fréaláf Hildeson, played by Laurence Ubong Williams. Finally, the leader of the Dunlendings is called Wulf, played by Luke Pasqualino, while Wulf’s father Freca will be played by Shaun Dooley. The cast also includes Lorraine Ashbourne, Yazdan Qafouri, Benjamin Wainwright, Michael Wildman, Jude Akuwudike, Bilal Hasna, and Janine Duvitski, but none of their roles have been named publicly just yet.

Animation Style

The Lord of the Rings franchise has a contentious history with the animation genre, but it has never gotten this kind of treatment before. The animation was handled by Sola Entertainment – a company best known for Japanese anime projects like the 2019 Ultraman series and two recent Ghost in the Shell productions, among other things. The War of the Rohirrim was reportedly animated with hand-drawn animation with stylistic nods to traditional anime productions, which will be a big departure from Sola’s CGI-heavy catalog up to this point. However, with a legend like Kamiyama at the helm, many fans are optimistic.

First-look images from the movie were published last month by PEOPLE, giving fans some idea of what they’re in for. Additionally, some fans were lucky enough to see about 20 minutes’ worth of footage from the film last week at the Annecy Film Festival.

Premiere Date Shift

First of all, The War of the Rohirrim is likely finished, and fans were devastated when Warner Bros. moved its premiere date. The studio made several scheduling changes in order to stretch out finished material until the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved. War of the Rohirrim was originally slated for release in April of 2024, but has now been moved.

What to Read

When a major book adaptation is coming up, it’s usually easy to recommend fans read the novels before they make it to the screen, but it’s a little tricky here. Once you get past the main novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth is scattered among appendices, short stories and hard-to-parse prose like The Silmarillion, so while The War of the Rohirrim is firmly based on Tolkien’s work, it’s hard to point at just one written source.

What’s Next?

The War of the Rohirrim is the first of several movies teased by New Line Cinema back in the summer of 2021. The latest reports indicate that the studio still intends to move forward with other spinoffs and prequels like this one, fleshing out Middle-earth more while holding onto the rights to the franchise. There’s no telling what exactly will come next, but it’s clear that The War of the Rohirrim is the first step into a new era for Tolkien’s work on the big screen. It is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 13, 2024 in theaters.