'The Lord of the Rings' Anime Movie 'The War of the Rohirrim' Is in the Works
Focusing on Helm Hammerhand, the founder of Helm’s Deep and the ninth king of Rohan.
An original The Lord of the Rings anime is currently in the works from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Animation.
The War of Rohirrim is being helmed by Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045’s Kenji Kamiyama and is closely tied to Peter Jackson‘s The Two Towers, but is set hundreds of years before The Battle of Helm’s Deep/Hornburg. The plot will reportedly focus on “an untold story behind Helm’s Deep” and will “tell of the life and bloodsoaked times of its founder, Helm Hammerhand, the king of Rohan.”
Joining Kamiyama are The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews as writers, while Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote both of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, is on board as a consultant. Animation will be done by Sola Entertainment.
Jackson will not be part of the project but has supposedly given his blessing.
“All of us at New Line feel a deep affinity for the extraordinary world J.R.R. Tolkien created, so the opportunity to dive back into Middle-earth with the team at Warner Bros. Animation is a dream come true,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group COO Carolyn Blackwood and New Line president and CCO Richard Brener in a statement. “Fans know Helm’s Deep as the stage for one of the greatest battles ever put to film and, with many of the same creative visionaries involved and the brilliant Kenji Kamiyama at the helm, we couldn’t be more excited to deliver a fresh vision of its history that will invite global audiences to experience the rich, complex saga of Middle-earth in a thrilling new way.”
Stay tuned for a trailer and release date.
Elsewhere in entertainment, watch the first five minutes of Netflix’s action-horror anime series, Trese.
