“Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.” – Bilbo Baggins
This year is turning into a Tolkien festival, with the recent teaser of the upcoming Prime Video’s “The Ring of Power” and now this. Within 24 hours of The Ring of Power’s teaser, Warner Bros. Animation and Sola Entertainment decided to ride the hype train and announced their upcoming anime fantasy film “The Lord of the Rings: The War of The Rohirrim. Sweet!
Me being a huge anime nerd, this announcement just made my day. And I though to myself, why not share this good news with you. Now this project was just announced, the voice cast hasn’t been revealed and no other solid details or leaks have been reported as of yet, so there’s limited information for me to break down. But I’ll try my best to satisfy you for now.
TIMELINE/STORY
This prequel series is set 250 years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. And this much is obvious from the title that this movie will cover the War that took place in Rohan. This film will center around Helm Hammerhand, the legendary ninth King of Rohan, and his exploits that lead to the creation of Helm’s Deep. You might remember Helm’s Deep from the great battle that took place in Peter Jackson’s 2002 film ‘The Two Towers’.
RELEASE DATE
The War of The Rohirrim is expected to be released on April 12, 2024, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The release date might shift, but if everything goes smoothly then this is the date for its release.
CREATORS
There are three major production companies behind this movie, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Sola Entertainment. The screenplay writers include Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, who have written based on the script from Jeffery Addiss and Will Matthews. Helping them in the animation department is Kenji Kamiyama, known for his direction of many ‘Ghost in the Shell’ movies and the current ‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’. It’s only fair that they would include an animation expert like Kenji, if they want this movie to be the best version of itself. Other returning team members include Oscar winner Richard Taylor and esteemed Tolkien illustrator John Howe.
“It’s a gift to be able to revisit Middle-Earth with many of the same creative visionaries and the talented Kenji Kamiyama at the helm. This will be an epic portrayal unlike anything you audiences have ever seen.”, said Toby Emmerich, Chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group.
Peter Jackson, director of the three live-action films, is not directly involved in this project, but showed his support to the team via a tweet.
CONCEPT ART
A first look at the concept art of the film was revealed in February 2022. The two pieces of art depict the battle between the armies of Rohirrim and the savage Dunlendings. In both the drawings, the Dunlendings are seen fighting alongside a vicious war beast known as a Mumakil. This elephant like beast possesses incredible destructive powers which were seen in the live-action trilogy.
Don’t know about you, but I’m definitely hitting the theaters for this one. With a team like this and the franchises first step into the anime verse, this project is destined for success.
