The Lord of the Rings franchise obviously has major plans; a notion proven by the recent trailer unleashed for Amazon’s lavish live-action series, The Rings of Power. Yet, while that series delves into a much-earlier Middle-earth milieu, set over 3,000 years before the main novels during the planet’s Second Age, another upcoming project, the anime movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, will subsequently bring the franchise to an era that might feel more familiar for fans of the main stories, specifically a few hundred years before the novels/films. Moreover, it will focus on the history of the equestrian warrior kingdom Rohan, specifically the eponymous character of the battle-hosting famed fortress, Helm’s Deep. Now, said anime has a drop date, albeit one that’s quite far away.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ The War of the Rohirrim, has set a release date of April 12, 2024 (yes, 2024!) for the gestating anime feature, which will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) off a screenplay by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). While the reveal, as reported by Variety, of a release date that’s well over two years away is rather surprising—especially since the project has been in the pipeline for almost a year now—it happens to come with a patience-stoking consolation prize in the form of a fantastic, revelatory piece of concept art, which you can view in the tweet below.
War of the Rohirrim will center on a figure from author J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary lore that might sound familiar even to casual fans of the films, Helm Hammerhand, whose statue is even showcased briefly in The Two Towers atop the stratospheric fortification that bears his name. Set centuries before the brutal battle of Helm’s Deep, the feature will follow the tall-tale-esque exploits of Hammerhand during a crucial point in Rohan’s history. In a sign that suggests consistency with the films, the anime feature will enjoy the consultancy of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy royalty in writer Philippa Boyens, who auspiciously lauds, “I’m in awe of the creative talent who have come together to bring this epic, heart-pounding story to life, from the mastery of Kenji Kamiyama to a truly stellar cast.”
If the anime sticks to the lore, then we will see a situation in which Hammerhand’s blunt-but-beloved nature clashes with the expectations of political niceties of local nobility—in this case over an unscrupulously imperious landowner’s attempt to marry his son off to Helm’s daughter—results in the formation of opposing alliances that thrusts the Rohirrim into war with the neighboring Wildmen of Dunland. Indeed, as we saw in The Two Towers, the rivalry was the catalyst for several centuries of wars, affecting several generations and sowing an unending animosity; one that Saruman would exploit in the trilogy’s middle act when he recruited the Wildmen to raze Rohan’s villages.
Consequently, while no context was provided in the piece, there are enough plot details available to surmise that we’re seeing one of the bitter historical skirmishes between the armies of Rohan (seen charging from the background,) and what appears to be ragtag-looking Dunlanders. However, the literal elephant in the figurative room is the presence of an oliphaunt, the massive tusked pachyderms utilized in wars by the far-south kingdom of Harad, who consist of humans draped in dark shrouds, who have historically heeded the call to fight for dark forces, notably for Sauron, as we saw in Return of the King. Pertinent to that, the film saw Rohan’s King Théoden lead a horseback charge against the Mordor armies sieging Minas Tirith, only to encounter surprise reinforcements from the Haradrim and their array of oliphaunts. Consequently, it seems that the shot-focused surprise reactions of Théoden and nephew/heir Éomer (Karl Urban, pictured in the title image,) might have actually recalled an apparent history in which Haradrim forces, and their oliphaunts, aided Rohan’s enemies in battles.
On another interesting note, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will offer its own contribution to the history of Rohan, despite the live-action show’s Second Age setting, which was several millennia before its founding. That’s because one of the 23 character posters recently released for the show focuses on a character holding a sword with a familiar-looking horse pommel, teasing the faceless mystery character as an ancestor of the Rohirrim. During this era, the region we know as Rohan was called Calenardhon, an aspect that will likely be reflected on the series. Consequently, the two very-different projects—one a $1 billion Amazon television series and another an anime movie—will actually present complementary storylines centered on this crucial, iconic Middle-earth kingdom.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has a long way to go until its April 12, 2024 arrival, and voice casting is currently underway. By then, the inaugural season of its franchise cousin, Amazon Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, will have already run its course, having debuted on Friday, September 2, 2022.
