Fans can prepare to ride with Héra and the ancient heroes of Rohan in theaters with a new featurette about The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. The animated epic based on the characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien will arrive in theaters across North America on December 13, through New Line Cinema.
The two-minute BTS video features director Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blade Runner: Black Lotus); producers Philippa Boyens (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), producer Jason DeMarco (SVP Anime & Action, Warner Bros. Animation/Cartoon Network Studios) and Joseph Chou (CEO of animation studio Sola Entertainment); and voice stars Gaia Wise (Héra) and Laurence Ubong Williams (Fréaláf), discussing the creative challenges and epic rewards of adapting Tolkien’s Middle-earth as a richly illustrated anime feature.
The featurette also includes footage of Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson visiting with the team (even bestowing a literal sword on Kamiyama).
Synopsis: 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 ofthe House of Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), 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 (Gaia Wise), the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
Read all about the making of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim in the January ’25 issue of Animation Magazine, available soon!
