We’re on the precipice of more Lord of the Rings than we’ve had in decades—Rings of Power is about to return to Amazon, and Warner Bros. is toiling away on multiple Lord of the Rings spinoff films. One of which, War of the Rohirrim, is coming this year and looks unlike anything we’ve seen from Middle-earth in a very long time. But that won’t stop Warner Bros. from reminding you that this new bit of Lord of the Rings comes from the vision that gave you the Lord of the Rings you already really like.
It’s perhaps telling that this reminder is here from the get-go in the very first official trailer for War of the Rohirrim, a new animated movie prequel coming this winter from anime director Kenji Kamiyama, known for his work on Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and more. The trailer doesn’t open with any of that, nor even a reminder that you’re watching a trailer for a Lord of the Rings animated film. Instead, it opens with footage from The Two Towers, the blaring horns of Howard Shore’s legendary Rohan leitmotif from the film, and a reminder: you are back in Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-earth.
At least when the trailer actually gets into the the film it’s about rather than the films its connected to, we get something that looks very cool indeed. Set 200 years before the beginning of the War of the Ring, War of the Rohirrim focuses on the rule of the legendary Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox, and the King of Rohan who gave Helm’s Deep its name), and the political games at play in Rohan as his rule is beset by conflict with Dunlendings.
Most notably we see that conflict framed through Helm’s young daughter, Hèra (voiced by Gaia Wise), as she finds herself subject to marriage proposals and political intrigue despite longing to help her father fight to secure their kingdom. There’s a lot that’s familiar here, for all of War of the Rohirrim‘s trappings so far before the events of Lord of the Rings. Edoras looks much as it did in the films, there’s Oliphaunts, eagles, even a Watcher in the Water, and yes, there does indeed even seem to be some kind of battle at Helm’s Deep, if not the battle we all know and love. It’s a lot of familiar aesthetics, done in a style we’ve never really seen it rendered in before, which is interesting to see at least.
Whether this aggressive leaning on War of the Rohirrim‘s connection to the Jackson films will play out as strongly in the final film as it does here remains to be seen, but as our first look at Warner Bros.’ plans to remind us that it has the visual keys to a still-legendary depiction of Tolkein’s works, it’s a fun reminder of what to expect.
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which also stars Luke Pasqualino as Hèra’s would be suitor and the film’s antagonist, Wulf, as well as the briefly heard Miranda Otto reprising her role as Éowyn in the film’s framing device, hits theaters December 13, 2024.
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