The first trailer for the highly anticipated movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has dropped – and it is going to make fans very excited! You’ll want to watch it right away:

Staffers at TheOneRing.net are abuzz over this trailer. We’ll be bringing you our reactions (including some below), but first, let’s look at what the official press release has to say:

Héra voiced by GAIA WISE in New Line Cinema’s and Warner Bros. Animation’s epic anime adventure ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’, a Warner Bros. pictures release. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

New Line Cinema’s original anime feature “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” returns audiences to the epic world brought to life in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, based on the revered books by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

Under the direction of award-winning filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama (the “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” and “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” TV series), the talented voice cast is led by Brian Cox (“Succession”) as Helm Hammerhand, the mighty King of Rohan; Gaia Wise (“A Walk in the Woods”) as his daughter Héra; and Luke Pasqualino (“Snowpiercer”) as Wulf.  Miranda Otto, who delivered an unforgettable, award-winning performance in “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy, reprises her role as Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, who serves as the tale’s narrator.  The voice ensemble also includes Lorraine Ashbourne (Netflix’s “Bridgerton”), Yazdan Qafouri (“I Came By”), Benjamin Wainwright (“World on Fire”), Laurence Ubong Williams (“Gateway”), Shaun Dooley (“The Witcher”), Michael Wildman (“Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”), Jude Akuwudike (“Beasts of No Nation”), Bilal Hasna (“Sparks”) and Janine Duvitski (“Benidorm”). 

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 of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan.  A sudden attack by Wulf, 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, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction. 

With Kamiyama at the helm, the original feature is being produced by Oscar winner Philippa Boyens, from the screenwriting team behind “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” Trilogies, alongside Jason DeMarco and Joseph Chou, who, in addition to their many separate animation projects, collaborated on the “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” series. The executive producers are Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson, Sam Register, Carolyn Blackwood and Toby Emmerich.  The screenplay is by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou, story by Addiss & Matthews and Boyens, based on characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien.  The team of creative collaborators returning from “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy also includes Oscar winners Alan Lee and Richard Taylor, along with esteemed Tolkien illustrator John Howe. 

A New Line Cinema Presentation, a Warner Bros. Animation / Sola Entertainment Production, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” will be distributed theatrically worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, released in cinemas nationwide on December 13, 2024, and internationally beginning 11 December 2024.

Héra voiced by GAIA WISE in New Line Cinema’s and Warner Bros. Animation’s epic anime adventure ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’, a Warner Bros. pictures release. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Staffer greendragon has a few preliminary thoughts:

Actually I’m kind of speechless! WHAT a trailer. Chills and excitement. Cannot wait to visit this version of Middle-earth; PJ’s vision but now through the eyes of Kenji Kamiyama. Thrilling.

0.01 Hello old friend. It’s been so long since we’ve had a trailer with these sounds, with these visuals… I’m kind of ridiculously emotional.

0.04 In case you had any doubt whose version of Middle-earth this is…

0.16 Yes please. I want to go there.

0.23 This is a beautiful shot; and cleverly brings us right into Kamiyama’s visual world. “OK, you love how Peter Jackson brought Tolkien’s realm to life; but check out THIS version of it!”

0.44 Breathtakingly beautiful.

0.55 It is so fun seeing the Golden Hall – familiar but also new.

01.18 Well that’s the exposition covered then…

01.19 Seriously, it is crazy how emotional this makes me. And sure, maybe this trailer overplays that, and rather manipulates us. But I’m ok with that; I have so many happy memories of looking forward to revisiting PJ’s version of Middle-earth in the holiday season. (I wonder if The Hunt for Gollum will also end up with a holiday release date? December 2026, maybe…?)

01.28 Echoes of Theoden; reminds me of ‘What can men do against such reckless hate?’

01.33 Not sure about Héra’s outfit; it looks strangely space-age in this shot. Makes me think of cartoons like ‘Battle of the Planets’. But, it will probably read differently in the context of the film.

01.39 This is a very cool visual. I don’t know enough about anime to know how this effect is achieved, but it reminds me a bit of the blend of styles in Bakshi’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

01.46 The eagles are coming!

01.50 Is this THE Watcher in the Water, or just A Watcher in the Water? If it’s the one, why is Héra in Moria?

01.54 Now that’s interesting – that shot totally reminds me of Galadriel climbing ice in Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Intentional or just serendipity?

02.14 I love the 3D effect of the title.

02.17 An orc gathering rings as Sauron searches for the One! Will this be our only glimpse of anything to do with the Ring legend…? And also, is that Andy Serkis’ voice I hear?

Wow. So excited for this movie.

Staffer Demosthenes here:

I’ve been wanting to see finished animation for The War of the Rohirrim for yonks. Descriptions out of Annecy and SDCC, while cool in themselves, aren’t especially useful for forming a personal judgement. Stills will only get you so far. You need to see it moving.

Now, with a teaser in hand that combines action and dialogue and sound, it’s the moment of truth. (well, the first of them.)

As someone who does watch a fair bit of anime, it was reassuring: although I wish it was a little more fluid in character animation, it’s still very solid. The character designs look good (quite detailed, too, and that increases the level of work for staff) and move well. The horses feel almost like a triumph – I loved the clods of earth the charge we saw was throwing up; very dynamic — given the difficulty of that task. And the backgrounds don’t jar by looking too real/photorealistic.

Fights feel realistic and don’t indulge in over the top physics — something that is fine for, say, Demon Slayer, but would be, I think, counter to the general tone of Middle-earth. It fits the world that it’s meant to be portraying.

This is crucial: it sounds and looks and feels like Middle-earth.

If there’s one thing I’m not sure about, it’s the Watcher-like creature. I don’t love monsters for the sake of them and it’s a long way from Moria to Rohan. Perhaps there’s a good contextual explanation, though.

I’ve always really liked the Helm story – it might be my favourite one out of the appendices. I can see the bones of that story here: the marriage proposal, the fight, and the consequences that follow for Rohan and its various people.

The trailer teases later events and the Hornburg climax without revealing it fully. If you don’t already know the Helm story, or what happens to Helm and his family, this trailer is a bit of a mystery actually!

I’m keen to see it all unfold on screen.

By-the-by, industry talk is that in the USA, Rohirrim trailer is attached to Beetlejuice. Can’t confirm that, but that’s the rumour.

(L-r) Wulf voiced by LUKE PASQUALINO and General Targg voiced by MICHAEL WILDMAN in New Line Cinema’s and Warner Bros. Animation’s epic anime adventure ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’, a Warner Bros. pictures release. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. also announced today that they will be attending New York ComicCon. We’ll also be hosting a War of the Rohirrim panel at DragonCon next week, complete with an interview with producer Jason DeMarco. News on all these happenings soon!

 

Our friends at Weta Workshop have a couple of really amazing environments up for pre-order. We’re in the last five days of the timed order window for the amazing Helm’s Deep  which is part of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 20th Anniversary. You can snag your pre-order right now for $899 USD, with shipping expected towards the end of 2023. This is going to be one of the must-have environments for any The Lord of the Rings collection.

We also get our first-ever mini-environment from the trilogy, with the new Mini-Orthanc. This version is Orthanc as seen after Saruman’s Orcs have destroyed the area around the tower. You can order this piece for $99.99 USD, with it shipping in quarter 2 of next year. This will be an open-edition piece.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Helm’s Deep and Mini-Orthanc Pre-Order”

Our friends at Games Workshop sent us this incredible set from their Battle for Middle-earth strategy game, which is called The Battle of Pelennor Fields. In this set, you get to build and paint your characters to replicate what you saw on film. Then fans can use the rules book and strategy guide to play out a very D&D type game, involving our favorite characters. As you will see in this review and picture, you get a ton of stuff with the set, which comes in at $158. You also will need to buy the paint set, and that will cost you $45, but based on what you can do with these sets, even putting all the costs together, it’s still a pretty fair price for everything.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Games Workshop: The Battle of Pelennor Fields”

Holidays in Middle-earth are based on the turning of the seasons, as they are in our own world. Yule, as Tolkien named the winter celebration in his novels, is led off by the Winter Solstice. The history of Yule can be traced back thousands of years to the Norse peoples, whom we know J.R.R had an affinity for. During this holiday, the Yule log (an entire tree fed gradually into the fireplace), decorated trees, wassailing (caroling), and roasting of wild boar were the centerpieces, from which current traditions are derived.

Festive decorations in the lamplight, outside a round, wooden door, hung with a holly star.
As we relax beside the crackling fire,
And the wind tosses branches in the pine,
Into a snow globe of Middle-earth, let us peer
Upon the festive winter holidays in the Shire,
Icicles on the Golden Hall that sparkle and shine,
The sound of sleigh bells in Ithilien drawing near,
The frost-glint upon holly and fields of briar,
The sumptuous fare on which the Elven-folk dine.
'Tis a time of joy in Middle-earth, for Yuletide is here. 
– Mithril
A sprig of greenery with red berries.
Continue reading “Yuletide Celebrations in Middle-earth”

Gondor isn’t the only realm in Middle-earth that is getting some love from the folks at Budk. Rohan is getting attention in the form of the helm and sword of none other than Eomer.

The helm is designed to look exactly like the one worn during The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. As with other items from Budk it will be made out of polyresin but will be brushed to give it the appearance of steel. The helm will also be leather padded, it comes with a leather chin strap, and imitation horse hair to finish off a pretty cool looking helmet. The base is made of wood and designed to look like Eomer’s armor. This one is limited to only 1500 pieces, priced at $356, and is expected in February 2021.

The other Eomer themed item is his sword Guthwine. The sword has a 27” stainless steel blade and precisely detailed metal hilt parts, finished in brass. The sword will also come with a decorated wall display so you can hang this in your collection room. You can snag this sword for $206 and it is also due in February of 2021. Both items will come with certificates of authenticity.

Continue reading “Collecting The Precious – Budk’s The Helm and Sword of Eomer”

Congratulations! You are a true Rider (or runner, or maybe a walker). You answered the call to traverse the miles from Dunharrow to Minas Tirith. Here is your Finisher Certificate. Print it out and share a photo of yourself on our World and Works of J.R.R. Tolkien Facebook page, and tell us a tale of your adventures, or perhaps share a poem or song.

There is still time to run this race here or the three previous Middle-earth Virtual 5k races. The Shire Sprint , Racing to Rivendell and 5000 Meters through Moria are still up and available for download. The certificates for those races are in the posts.

If you complete all four races by May 31, you can download a final additional certificate that shows you completed all four races. Congratulations again! We hope you had fun.

Certificate design/illustration by staff member Mithril (Nancy Steinman).
Additional illustration by BSGStudio and freedesignfile.