The trailer of The War of the Rohirrim is out. The film is an anime feature adaptation from a chapter of the well known fantasy franchise The Lord of the Rings.
The film is helmed by director Kenji Kamiyama who has previously directed anime series like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East. The anime film will be released in cinemas in the USA on 13 December and worldwide on 11 December.
The Lord of the Rings franchise is based on the novel by writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkein.
The film’s voice cast is led by Brian Cox (Succession) as Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan; Gaia Wise (A Walk in the Woods) as his daughter Héra; and Luke Pasqualino (Snowpiercer) as Wulf. Miranda Otto returns as Éowyn from the original trilogy, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, who serves as the film’s narrator. The voice cast also includes Lorraine Ashbourne (Netflix’s Bridgerton), Yazdan Qafouri (I Came By), Benjamin Wainwright (World on Fire), Laurence Ubong Williams (Gateway), Shaun Dooley (The Witcher), Michael Wildman (Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Jude Akuwudike (Beasts of No Nation), Bilal Hasna (Sparks) and Janine Duvitski (Benidorm).
The official synopsis reads as follows:
The anime feature film is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg— a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
With Kamiyama at the helm, the original feature is being produced by Oscar winner Philippa Boyens, from the screenwriting team behind The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, alongside Jason DeMarco and Joseph Chou, who, in addition to their many separate animation projects, collaborated on the Blade Runner: Black Lotus series. The executive producers are Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson, Sam Register, Carolyn Blackwood and Toby Emmerich. The screenplay is by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou, story by Addiss & Matthews and Boyens, based on characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The team of creative collaborators returning from the original film trilogy also includes Oscar winners Alan Lee and Richard Taylor, along with esteemed Tolkien illustrator John Howe.
The franchise recently expanded by releasing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power streaming series which debuted its season one during 2022 with the second season being confirmed for release on 29 August 2024. The series is available to stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video platform.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, will be distributed theatrically worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.