We hear via Deadline that Warner Bros. Animation is putting back the release of its animated feature film The War of the Rohirrim to December 2024. The new release date is December 13. Previously it was to open worldwide on April 12.
The seven-month delay is seemingly part of a cascade started by the shift of the release of Dune: Part 2 to March 15 — a slot previously occupied by Godzilla X Kong. GxK’s one-month delay has subsequently forced WOTR into a new date.
Deadline notes that the only other movie set for a December 13 2024 release is Sony’s The Karate Kid.
However, other reasons both sentimental and practical might have contributed to WOTR being pushed back seven months.
First, for Warner Bros. and New Line Cinemas, releasing films from the Middle-earth milieu is virtually a tradition now. That ought to play well with the fandom. Producer Jason DeMarco certainly seems to think it’s a lucky one.
Source: Jason DeMarco twitter account. Supplied by TimB
Second, it’s no secret that the last several years have seen numerouswell-credentialled anime series experience production crunches that have caused substantial release delays. Animator overwork and schedule slippage now seem so regular that insiders are asking themselves whether this situation is simply “the new normal”.
Further, film director Kenji Kamiyama and Sola Entertainment (the animation studio) CEO Joseph Chou commented recently at Annecy Film Festival about the weight of work that remained on The War of the Rohirrim and that they were seeking additional talent to help with the film.
While they mostly seem done, Kenji and Joseph have a lot more to do, they’re still deep in the production process. Kenji seemed stressed! “Probably the biggest film he’s ever worked on”. Kenji kept talking about the challenge of it, and was clearly still thinking deeply about “how he’s gonna finish this film.”
Joseph jokes about how the crew is going to have to work nights and weekends to finish this movie, which really bummed me out. Can we not normalize the brutal working hours in animation? I expect better tbh.
In that context, an extra seven months might also have been a prudent production decision.
About the author: Staffer Demosthenes has been involved with TheOneRing.net since 2001, serving first as an Associate News Editor, then as Chief News Editor during the making of the Hobbit films. Now he focuses on features and analysis.The opinions in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net and other staff.
Our anime-insider has brought us this exclusive report from the Warner Bros. panel at Annecy in France that presented an exciting “first look” at The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Be warned: depending on your knowledge of the Helm Hammerhand story and what you’ve been reading of our coverage so far, there may be spoilers below!
Source: WB SVP Jason DeMarco.
Panel members:
Kenji Kamiyama – Japanese director
Philippa Boyens – writer/producer (Philippa shared shoutouts from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Andy Serkis.)
Joseph Chou – producer and owner of Sola Studios
Jason DeMarco – studio creative exec with WB. (Described as being “made in a lab to make this movie” because he’s an anime and Lord of the Rings nerd.)
Making of the film:
WB raised the idea of an animated film. Philippa felt the question was “Do we want to see familiar characters from the live action films animated?” Her kids love anime, which is her connection to the medium.
She talked about the need for a level of realism, to bridge the gap between live action and animation.
They wanted to tell a complete story that was separate from either of the trilogies, and a story without the direct influence of the Ring or the shadow of Sauron.
Wanted to find a story in Middle-earth that “fit with anime, culturally.”
Kenji Kamiyama is also a writer, so Philippa found it was an easy collaboration — he’s really good at keeping the story together, understanding place and scale, and keeping Philippa on track when she went down rabbit holes.
The writing process began with Will Matthews and Jeffrey Addiss [Editor’s note: they recently won an Emmy for their Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance] who have comedy chops but were not versed in the lore of Middle-earth. And Philippa didn’t want to write it: “I felt too old, honestly.” So she brought in her daughter Phoebe and her partner Arty Papageorgiou. Phoebe literally grew up on the sets and most importantly, she understands the rhythm of Tolkien’s language. Kenji was so excited to have a young female writer onboard.
They collaborated with many people from the live action film. We saw concept art from John Howe, Alan Lee, Richard Taylor, and Mark Wilshire were also involved. They also worked with WETA closely, and literally used their models of Edoras. It fully takes place in the world of the film trilogies and many of the images will look very familiar to fans!
When Kenji was approached with this idea, he thought it was “impossible”.
Adapting the world to animation was a struggle. They worked with Daniel Falkner (sp? Editor’s note: Dan Falconer, I think!) who was an art director on the live action films and “knew where the bodies were buried” — [he] could help them find old assets and consult about the history. They talked about the number of horses — so many! — and how hard horses are to animate. But that’s a huge part of the story. Kenji said they needed to use all their tricks to pull this off. They sent the animation crew to horse barns to film, ride, and “be scared”.
Animation process: they used detailed CG models of the characters and layouts, some from WETA, and assembled a layout in Unreal. They would choose shots and cuts from this and assemble a rough cut. This served as a base for the mocap director who would film actors. Then it all went to the animators, who used that to do the animation. Kenji stressed that this is NOT ROTOSCOPE — it’s an interpretation/translation.
Kenji said that usually, a character animator will take a lot of time to learn a character. They really need to understand them. But this movie had a tight timeline, hence the motion capture.
I don’t think Howard Shore is composing the music, but they are using his score — so cool to hear it!
Philippa said it’s been “a joy” to work on an animated project. She also talked about working with Jason DeMarco, and how he made sure to get some “monster vs. monster” moments in the film.
I talked with Philippa later and she wanted me to share a detail: in Carpenter’s Tolkien biography, when Tolkien first had a room in college he decorated it with Japanese prints. She found that really cool to now be doing this distinctly Japanese take on animation.
While they mostly seem done, Kenji and Joseph have a lot more to do, they’re still deep in the production process. Kenji seemed stressed! “Probably the biggest film he’s ever worked on”. Kenji kept talking about the challenge of it, and was clearly still thinking deeply about “how he’s gonna finish this film.”
Joseph described it as “a huge privilege” to work on this. They want to do Japanese animation proud, and they are very aware of all the fans who are watching and want this to be done right. Also this is the first time he and Kenji met Philippa in person! This was started during Covid.
Joseph jokes about how the crew is going to have to work nights and weekends to finish this movie, which really bummed me out. Can we not normalize the brutal working hours in animation? I expect better tbh.
They ended with saying that they are currently recruiting talent for the film. Presumably in Japan. (Editor’s note: I wonder if that means additional animators … or Japanese voice talent?)
Finally, the movie will be out 4/12/24 in theaters only!
Spoilers below – you have been warned!
Story details:
There may be “a character or two we recognize” from the live action films. (Editor’s note: Saruman, Saruman, Saruman and Saruman.)
It’s about the failure of Helm Hammerhand, the war that results from it, and the characters who stepped up in the wreckage. Edoras is destroyed at the end of act 1 — we saw some beautiful art of a burned Meduseld — and the rest of the movie as about “the wreckage of war”.
Discussion of the Rohirrim culture as being based by JRRT on the Mercians — a warrior culture with a code. Family-based power structures and struggles, with honor and loyalty being more important than wealth and riches.
Alluded to a “ghost story” and a “surreal story” within this movie — all suited to the medium of animation.
We saw concept art images of Oliphants and orcs (I think — maybe they were wildmen) surrounding Edoras. We saw a rider with long yellow hair and a horn riding in front of an Oliphant. The art style reminds me of some 90s anime. We saw art of Isengard on its own, and surrounded by tents and wildfires. We saw a lot of background art of Meduseld — really beautiful translation in my opinion, and so familiar.
Lots of consultation with experts to figure out what Middle-earth would look like 260 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings.
The movie begins with a voiceover from Éowyn — Mirando Otto herself! She talks about Héra, how she is a rebellious child and how she is not named in the old tales. We got to see a rough cut of this beginning, with a combination of CG models and hand drawn animation. Héra rides across the plains, rides to the top of a bluff, and tosses a huge hunk of meat into the air, where it’s snatched by a giant eagle. She almost touches the eagle — but it flies away before she can.
We saw another scene in Meduseld, where a herald talks to Fréalaf about heraldry, and then Héra comes in to explain the shieldmaiden herald and what it means. She and Fréalaf are cousins i think? Reminiscent of Éomer and Éowyn. Helm comes in, commanding the attention at the room, and sits at the throne.
We saw a still image of Helm frozen in front of the Edoras gates, knee deep in enemies. Again I’m not sure if they’re orcs or Wildmen or both. (Editor’s note: maybe the concept art below? Which is more likely to be the gates of the Hornburg (then called Súthburg), not Edoras)
The Characters:
Héra(VA: Gaia Wise) – female main character. Not named by Tolkien, but Helm’s daughter is mentioned and she was the character they wanted to explore. Wanted to explore a female POV in Middle-earth, but she’s not a warrior princess per-se — she doesn’t become king. For her character, they they drew on the historical figure of Æthelflæd — the Lady of the Mercians, who defended her people.
We saw expression sheets and designs for Hera. She reads very 90s anime girl — kind of reminds me of the Rankin Bass Éowyn. She has red hair in a messy braid, leather armor, and a sword. We also see designs of her in formal dress. They describe her as “vulnerable and wild”, a tomboy type character. She has a growth in the film — maybe tied to needing to lead her people in a time of chaos. Philippa loves that her hair is never perfect.
Wulf(VA: Luke Pasqualino) – the other main character, the main antagonist. I think he’s from the Wildmen? He’s a big muscly dude with long hair, scruffy, an axe and furs and a ragged cloak. A scar over one eye. They solicited “lots of ideas from the female staff” in the studio. The note they got was “he does bad things, so make him beautiful”. And he is.
Helm Hammerhand (VA: Brian Cox) – daddy vibes. he’s got a big beard and a crown, we saw an expression sheet and a polished design. Red and blue clothing with beautiful intricate gold details.
Freca(VA: Shaun Dooley) – He’s the leader of the Wildmen, and he offers his son’s hand in marriage to Héra. That’s the inciting incident of the movie and leads to “Helm’s big mistake”. He’s wide with leather armor, a cloak, and some kind of bearpaw maul on a chain. He has facial tattoos. “Helm doesn’t take him seriously.” He’s trying to take over Rohan with this marriage. He’s strong and tragic, but also a comedic figure. Philippa quoted a line from the movie: “fat and prosperous is when men are at their most dangerous”.
Fréalaf (VA: Laurence Ubong Williams) – I think he’s Héra’s cousin, he “wins everything in the end” and becomes king.
Thank-you WB and Philippa Boyens for all your kindness and generosity. We look forward to seeing The War of the Rohirrim next April.
Join the discussion: If you’d like to weigh in with your thoughts, feel free to join our Discord server. Or join the currently active thread on our forum message boards.
The Annecy Film Festival “first look” at The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has just concluded and reactions are starting to trickle out. While we wait for fuller reports from our own Crebain, here’s a selection of thoughts from the internet.
(It does seem quite positive and I am personally very excited by that.)
Just finished the work in progress talk for the new #LotR film #WaroftheRohirrim, and I have to say that the marriage between Lord of the Rings and #anime never looked so good! The world and characters looked very authentic. I can’t wait to see this in theaters next year.
Art-books, chara-design and extracts enriched this exclusive presentation of the future “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” in the company of his team, including Kenji Kamiyama (director) and Philippa Boyens (screenwriter of the LOTR saga ).
LordOfTheRings War of the Rohirrim is already shooting to the top of my most anticipated movies of 2024. The (very short and unfinished) footage shown at #Annecy2023 looks fantastic. This is 100% in line with the original trilogy while also very much an anime. Can’t wait.
I’m drying my wet eyes, I’m cleaning up all these pages of notes and I’m telling you, but #WarOfTheRohirrim is in very good hands.
This is beautiful 2D from new drawings by John Howe and Alan Lee. It’s full Rohan and the story, based on three paragraphs, is led by a young woman, Hera, the daughter of Helm Hammerhead [sic. i think that should be “Hammerhand”.]
Two scenes were shown (one of them, the opening, not finished) and the producers commented on the importance of trying to unite the world of Lord of the Rings movies with anime ones. And it really was an interesting combination. It reminded me a bit of Castlevania.
Castlevania! That’s interesting. I’ve not watched it (Netflix jail something something), but I understand it’s well-regarded. Two scenes is also interesting, and accords more or less with my expectations of what they’d reveal.
For #WaroftheRohirrim, a lot of Unreal and motion capture is being used to help figure out the shots. But no rotoscope is being used, it is only for reference. Then it is all getting the traditional anime treatment for the final look. It looks amazing! #LotR #AnnecyFestival
It is only for reference: right now, I’m interpreting that as meaning for fight scenes pending further clarification. I do think they are trying to not scare/alienate people who’ve seen Bakshi’s rotoscoped LOTR treatment with that clarification.
I saw the first images of the (Japanese) anime “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” To be honest, not particularly convinced for the moment, I was hoping for something else BUT we really find the style of PJ’s films and the sets seem successful.
The first fence-sitter! And more for the adherence to PJ-style than anything else? Interesting.
There was a really early layout of what looked Ike [sic] the opening sequence: starting from a map fly through to a sequence with Hera on a horse with some great eagles. Then a talk scene in I assume Edoras with Hera talking about the shield Maidens. #LofR #WaroftheRohirrim
A little bit more detailed information about the scenes that were shown.
Some work in progress footage, and then at the end a montage of completed shots. It really looks like a lot of care is being put into it.
Aaah, wish I’d been there to see!
KEY UPDATE
French publication Allocine comes in with the first extended report on the “first look”. I’ve used the googlemonster’s auto-translate to pull out some key details, but you should peruse the original article in French here.
This animated prequel set 260 years before the cult trilogy is inspired by the Appendices provided by JRR Tolkien at the end of The Return of the King (Appendix A, Chapter II: The House of Eorl).
This is a curious one since earlier publicity material has stated events occur 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films. Even factoring in the canonical delay between Bilbo’s party and Frodo setting out for Rivendell, something still seems wrong. It’s also … well… trivial, so I’ll return to this weirdness when I have time.
The film features a female character Hera, “neither a princess in distress nor a warrior” , the daughter of King Helm whose hand is coveted by Wulf, himself the son of Freca the leader of the clan of wild men.
I really like the neither/nor. It feels more complex and open to a nuanced presentation. By-the-by it also accords with the vibe I got from my discussion with Philippa Boyens last year.
“The attraction of this film was to tell a film that follows neither the story of the Ring nor that of Sauron” summarizes the New Zealand producer, who also hinted that some characters well known to fans of the trilogy could appear in this film.
The Helm story is a very human one, and on the face of it, remarkably unmagical. No elves, no dwarves, no wizards. Except Saruman at the very end. They really want to say Saruman, but they’re only willing to tease it.
To explore Tolkien’s universe using anime codes, several different animation techniques were employed, ranging from CGI to more traditional 2D animation as well as the employment of performance-capture techniques . For the sake of realism, the animators of the film were asked to study horses and practice horseback riding.
As I wrote yesterday (completely stealing the line from the incredibly smart anime art anaylsts over at Sakuga Blog), “horses populate the nightmares of animators”. It makes a lot of sense — Rohirrim as Tolkien outlined in Letter 144 is a Sindarin name meaning “the host of the Horse-lords”. Kyoto Animation had people on their staff who knew Kyudo (Japanese archery) for their series Tsurune. The results of that practical knowledge applied to their work speaks for itself.
Three non-finalized excerpts were broadcast in exclusive preview during this panel. The opening sequence, introducing the character of Hera, a dialogue scene in King Helm’s throne room, and finally a short teaser announcing the film’s main action scenes.
No Eowyn seemingly? Kinda surprsing, but I’ll take a cookie for guessing Edoras would feature. Hera and Helm suggests to me that the familial relationships will be critical. Hera may end up our viewpoint character. Why? She survives wheras all her close kin — Helm, Haleth and Hama — perish.
Big ups again to Allocine for the summary!
SLASHFILM also has a very nice report up now. Unfortunately, at time of writing, they appear to have confused Charlie Cox for Brian Cox, who is the real voice actor for Helm Hammerhand. we all make typos but hopefully the eds over there can fix that one soon.
ARROBA NERD has an even better and more detailed report. It’s getting late over here in Oz so I’ll leave it to others to break it down, but it has more details about character designs and dialogue that you can read about here.
IMPORTANT (because i know a lot of people will wonder): Producer Jason DeMarco clarified about the status of the footage shown to attendees — “We presented work in progress for attendees of the festival but it won’t be widely released.”
NOTE: I’ll keep updating this as more reactions come in (hopefully with more details), so be sure to check back!
The Annecy Film Festival — which is hosting a “first look” at The War of the Rohirrim on June 13 — has updated its site listing to reveal that the length of Warner Bros. Animation’s (WBA) forthcoming feature anime will be 130 minutes.
That’s actually substantial for an animated film and will place it among the top 50 longest animated films of all time. Length is no indication of quality, but good animation is time and resource intensive. WBA’s committment to a long feature indicates confidence in the story they have to tell.
It also helps explain the long development — the project was first announced in June 2021, and will not premiere until April 2024. For comparison, the newest Makoto Shinkai anime Suzume, began production in March 2020 and only debuted in cinemas earlier this year.
WOTR’s director, Kenji Kamiyama, has also been busy directing other projects: Ultraman, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045.
Animation techniques: 2D/3D blending
The other thing of note in Annecy’s overview of the presentation is the animation techniques listed.
Much, of course, has been made that The War of the Rohirrim is being animated in 2D — because everyone panics mightily as soon as the words “3D animation” are even whispered. But 2D/3D blending — typically for effects or backgrounds — has become a staple in even some of themost popularanime, and can look non-intrusive and seamless when executed with skill. Apparently even Hayao Miyazaki’s Mononoke Hime contained a small amount of 3D CG rendering — something I was not aware of until I began looking into just how prevalent the use of CG effects has become in modern anime productions.
Just so long as they avoid horrors such as Golden Kamuy’s notorious CGI bear.
Animiation techniques: rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is another surprise, although Staffer Justin tells me TORn Tuesday reported industry talk that that WETA was using the “Avatar mocap technology” for The War of the Rohirrim.
It seems that talk was on the mark.
When I saw that I instantly thought that it might be used for animating horses, because as people who know far more about the art of animating than me point out, “horses populate the nightmares of animators“. And I think it would be foolish to not expect a film about the Rohirrim to not feature a lot of horses.
I can already sense readers who have seen Ralph’s Bakshi’s animated The Lord of the Rings recoiling in terror. Yet it’s important to acknowledge the time- and money-pressures that Bakshi and his crew worked under: effectively filming then animating the same film twice in a two-year period with a budget of approximately $4 million. (That’s a touch over $18.5 million in 2023 dollars — much less than many modern Disney animations.)
By comparison, Kamiyama and his crew have three years for development and production, they won’t be rotoscoping everything, and they have the substantial benefit of digital animation methods. And, one guesses, they have a larger budget.
One of our Discord regulars also smartly suggested that rotoscoping could be employed for battles, and pointed out a rotoscoped fight sequence (warning: this clip is quite gory and not suitable for children) that popped up in a recent episode of the anime Vinland Saga. It’s impressively natural and I could see something like that in a story as grim as that of Helm.
Just to further illustrate that rotoscoping can look great in the right hands given sufficient resources, check this character acting scene from Attack on Titan. Or this stunning piece of sakugafrom Kaguya-sama: Love is War that gained both popular and critical acclaim back in 2019.
Anticipating Annecy: going behind-the-scenes for 75 minutes
Kamiyama will be joined at Annecy by executive producer Philippa Boyens and producer Joseph Chou for a 75-minute behind-the-scenes presentation into their adaptation of the Helm Hammerhand story that is found in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The session will be moderated by fellow producer Jason DeMarco.
Right now, WBA is being very quiet about what they’ll be showcasing.
However, here’s a quick bit of speculation/guesswork that you’re free to take with a grain of salt.
I think the length of the presentation means those attending (not yours truly, sadly) will be treated to a slab of finished animation. I couldn’t see them filling a 75-minute session with just more concept art and character designs.
That animation might be a teaser, or it could be several small segments that the presenters then discuss. I recall that Peter Jackson did this for The Desolation of Smaug and, mostly due to the choice of clips focusing on Martin Freeman’s Bilbo, it was really quite effective at raising anticipation.
I’d expect dialogue and perhaps even music. Stephen Gallagher was revealed as the composer for the score back in February and must have been appointed to the role much earlier.
If it was me, I would choose scenes from places familiar to viewers of Peter Jackson’s films — both fans and casuals — to encourage the mental connection. That suggests Edoras or Helm’s Deep. But the latter might be a bit too far along in the story and reveal too much of the story, so I lean to Edoras. You could show some dramatic scenes with all the key cast — Helm, Wulf, Freca, Héra — that are root to establishing the conflict. The initial concept art that WBA put out showed Edoras being attacked so Kamiyama might tease some of that as well to show how much progress they’ve made.
Since we’re familiar with the location, it’s also possible that we could see Isengard (although, canonically, Freca’s seat of power seems to be another location at the surce of the River Adorn). This could also help set up that there are two sides to the conflict — something that Boyens emphasised was integral to the story they were telling when we spoke this time last year.
This is in addition to more concept art, and, I expect, our first look at some character designs.
Regardless, we’ll very soon know more. It’s been a long wait to get something tangible but it’s nearly over!
About the author: Staffer Demosthenes has been involved with TheOneRing.net since 2001, serving first as an Associate News Editor, then as Chief News Editor during the making of the Hobbit films. Now he focuses on features and analysis.The opinions in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net and other staff.
Executive Producer Philippa Boyens is pretty pleased with the casting for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
“It’s exciting — we’ve been sitting on it for a little bit,” she says. “[But] it all seemed to come together in an organic way, which is what you want, I think. Suddenly, the right people come to the role.”
Boyens says that bringing in Otto as narrator was not an immediate decision. Rather it was one that gradually emerged.
She explains that Éowyn eventually felt like the natural way into the bloody and grim tale from Rohan’s past.
“Her voice was familiar,” she says. “And then I think it started to come easily for the writers.”
She hopes that it will also help locate the story for film fans who are unfamiliar with deeper cuts from Middle-earth’s history.
Yet that was not the only reason — an oral tradition felt fitting.
“It’s also so fragmentary, what we are dealing with in terms of the source material. It’s little bits of references here and there … so the oral tradition felt kind of right. The oral tradition of her telling the tale, passing the tale on.”
She doesn’t divulge to whom. But one guesses it is likely her grandson, Barahir. Tolkien not only names Barahir in The Lord of the Rings (solving any potential rights-access issues that would arise with her son, Elboron), he is also an in-world scholar and the author of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.
Helm Hammerhand: a complex and epic role
Boyens says that both the film’s director Kenji Kamiyama, and Warner Bros SVP and producer Jason DeMarco, were well aware of Brian Cox from his recent voice role in the English dub of Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
“They’re huge fans, of course,” she says.
“Weirdly, years ago — and this is me aging myself — I tried to go and see Brian’s performance as Titus Andronicus.”
She describes how this 1987 run of the Shakespeare tragedy directed by Deborah Warner has attained a legendary status.
“It was just one of those ones which was fresh and shocking,” she says.
“And it [the Andronicus role] wasn’t a role — this is from Brian himself — that many of the other actors were interested in taking on. But he connected to it. I couldn’t get a ticket, but I had a couple of friends saw it who were just blown away. And they talked about the way in which his rage was fuelled by this grief. And the underlying horror that was in the storytelling.
“And that kind of resonated with me when we were thinking about the Helm role. Because it just — it spans a lot of different emotions.”
She says the role — and the film — is about delving into Helm’s choices.
“And the mistakes he made as well. And then his acknowledgement of those mistakes. Was there an acknowledgement of those mistakes?” she asks.
At different points she notes Helm’s hot-temperedness, and how he almost certainly under-estimated the Rohirrim lord, Wulf, who after he is outlawed leads the Dunlending invasion of Rohan.
“[Yet], I saw the tales of him slipping out [of the Hornburg] during the siege and attacking the camp for his people as literally someone trying — even with their bare hands – to protect the people as the king should,” she adds.
“So he was a true manifestation of the king-protector.”
Helm’s heirs and the overthrow of Edoras
The grim reality, though, is that Helm is unable to protect his children.
His eldest son, Haleth, is slain when Edoras is overrun and taken by Wulf’s forces while Helm is forced to take refuge in the Hornburg. We touch only briefly on Helm’s other son but I conclude that his Hama’s fate will remain the same tragedy that it is in Appendix A.
Boyens describes the first as a shocking and powerful moment. Powerful, perhaps, for readers, to finally see things they’ve long envisaged through Tolkien’s descriptions; shocking for film fans to see the unexpected — Edoras besieged and overthrown.
On the other hand, Tolkien leaves the fate of Helm’s daughter unclear. In fact, he never names her even though Freca’s bid for her hand in marriage for his son, Wulf, is a key catalyst for war. Boyens concedes that we simply do not know a lot about her.
“Where we turn to, very deliberately, is to Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians. Alfred the Great’s daughter,” Boyens says, and proceeds to provide a rapid-fire education on an era of British history that I’d barely known of until now.
“She never ruled as a queen per se; she’s known as the Lady of Mercians. But she seems to step in when her people needed her.
“Æthelflæd was also really ingenious, which comes into play in the script. [It] was an idea that Kamiyama had, and they (he and the writers) played with that. I can’t tell you too much about it. But it’s about how you save your life when you have very little to work with?”
It’s a statement that seems to suggest that Helm’s daughter – who they’ve chosen to name Héra – will play some key role after the fall of Edoras to Wulf, and the death of Haleth.
“And I really don’t think that Professor Tolkien would hate this,” Boyens says. “Because I always see him as a bit of a Mercian himself being from the Midlands.”
Héra: so named as a nod to the Anglo-Saxon
Unsurprisingly, the name Héra is chosen for alliterative effect: Helm, Haleth, Hama, Héra. Yet Boyens reveals that wasn’t initially the case.
“Someone suggested another name and I went: “Nope, it’s gotta start with “H”, sorry”,” she says.
“Actually, Fran Walsh named her. I told her we were stuck. It’s actually Héra (I get a quick pronunciation lesson and discover the é functions a little like the “ai” in hair) — that’s why it has the accent. Not so much based on the Greek [goddess] Hera, but a nod to the Anglo-Saxon.
“And I like to think she wasn’t a character that [the writers] tried to create wholesale — pulling things out of thin air. Héra is very much drawing from sources that fit with the storytelling that Tolkien himself is drawing on.”
In case you’re wondering, Boyens confirms that neither Fran Walsh nor Peter Jackson have an official production role. It’s more that, since they’re long-time collaborators and have so much experience within Tolkien’s Middle-earth, they’re sometimes just a natural sounding board for ideas.
“I also want to give a shout out to Gaia Wise who voices Héra. I think you guys are going fall in love with her. She is fantastic, she’s amazing. She just had such innate sense of who the character is and how to play her. She was great.
“She had a very natural sense of fiery-ness, but without it being petulance defiance.”
Mûmakil, mercenaries and money
While we’re discussing events at Edoras, conversation inevitably veers toward the Mûmakil that were prominent in the initial concept art released in January.
“In order to understand the use of those [ideas],” Boyens says, “you need to understand the character of Wulf and the position that Wulf is in — and had found himself in. And who he would be turning to.”
At this point she pulls in another fact, mentioning the great wealth of Wulf’s father, Freca.
“His father was not an insignificant Lord of Rohan. He had indeed grown fat and prospered,” she says, referencing Helm’s comment in Appendix A about Freca’s large waistline.
Boyens doesn’t expand any further, but my own guess is that The War of the Rohirrim will establish Wulf as the organising mind behind coordinated assaults on Gondor and Rohan, using resources wealth from his father to secure the assistance of Corsairs and Haradrim.
As Appendix A states:
Four years later (2758) great troubles came to Rohan, and no help could be sent from Gondor, for three fleets of the Corsairs attacked it and there was war on all its coasts. At the same time Rohan was again invaded from the East, and the Dunlendings seeing their chance came over the Isen and down from Isengard.
It was soon known that Wulf was their leader. They were in great force, for they were joined by enemies of Gondor that landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen.
A human struggle that becomes increasingly claustrophobic
If this sounds like a very human — and political — struggle, Boyens concurs. I suggest the absence of elves, dwarves and hobbits makes it a very different tale to The Lord of the Rings that most know.
She indicates that this was one of the reasons for choosing Helm’s story.
“It’s not about the Ring, it’s not about the Dark Lord. All of that is very peripheral to the story.”
She says it’s also the attraction of examining honour, revenge and familial ties — on both sides.
For Helm, there’s madness born of grief from the loss of the child. With Wulf, there’s his relationship with his father, and with Héra.
“He is his father’s son, but he has a different character. So he does actually offer [to wed] her and the writers asked: ‘Why?’ What was driving him? Was it just his father demanding that he do this? Was it his ambition? What was at play there?”
Even the historical grievances of the Dunlendings — that the lords of Gondor gave what the Dunlendings felt was their land to the Rohirrim — should come through in the film.
She says that all those things are in the Helm tale.
“When I talked to Kamiyama about it, it resonated with him. So that was the genesis,” she says.
“And there’s a moment in the film, which is incredibly gut-wrenching and powerful where Wulf commits himself to a course of action he cannot turn away from. And once he does that, the story darkens.”
She says it was here that the screenwriters Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou really connected with Kamiyama.
“So, yes, it begins with these quite large-scale battles, but it actually becomes more intense and … claustrophobic,” Boyens says.
“And the nature of the film changes almost into a ghost story.
“As the siege takes hold, as the rumours of horror begin to spread. And I can give you a little tease and let you know that, although we said this isn’t about The Ring and this isn’t about the Dark Lord … there are the White Mountains and there are creatures [out there].”
Somewhat to my relief she squashes speculation that she might be referring to the Dead of Erech. Instead, she suggests that orcs inhabited the area — a historically more agreeable inclusion.
“Also, I can just add — and I thought it was, again, really interesting in the way that Kamiyama approached this — this was a long, cold winter that was hurting everyone.”
This suggests that there won’t be space to see Gondor’s own struggles. Gondor may come to the rescue in the end, but it seems the focus will be squarely on a life-and-death struggle within Rohan.
She won’t even confirm or deny the presence of Saruman the White in the film. We’ll just have to wait and see.
About the author: Staffer Demosthenes has been involved with TheOneRing.net since 2001, serving first as an Associate News Editor, then as Chief News Editor during the making of the Hobbit films. Now he focuses on features and analysis.The opinions in this article are his own and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net and other staff.
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One of the continual questions that has come up since the first announcement of The War of the Rohirrim is whether the Kenji Kamiyama-directed effort will be 2D or 3D.
(To say that many anime aficionados have mixed feelings about the use of full 3D would be somewhat of an understatement.)
Last year, WOTR producer (and now Senior Vice President of Anime and Action Series at Warner Bros.) Jason DeMarco answered on his personal twitter that the film would be in 2D. Yesterday he re-confirmed that the feature-length animation would be 2D — there has been no change of direction.
Some of the confusion (and concern) seems to arise from the involvement of Sola Entertainment. Sola Ent. is the parent company of Sola Digital Arts. It was Sola Digital Arts that animated full-3D works such as Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, Ultraman, and Bladerunner: Black Lotus.
But as one of the editors of longtime anime news source Anime News Network points out on their forums: The War of the Rohirrim “may be being made by a different division of Sola Entertainment, or by a studio outsourced from it. Notably, [the] production studio is listed on Sola’s own website as ‘Sola Entertainment/TBC.'”
DeMarco also reinforced that several alumni from the Peter Jackson films are involved in the production:
Do we have Weta on board? YUP Do we have Philippa Boyens on board? YUP Do we have John Howe on board? YUP DO WE HAVE ALAN FUCKING LEE ON BOARD?? HELL YEAH WE DO
