THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM Director Discusses The Daunting Production of the Anime Epic

Warner Bros. is currently developing an epic Lord of the Rings anime film with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which is being directed by Kenji Kamiyama. As you might imagine, this is a huge animated project that is going to tell an epic story and as you might imagine, taking on a project like this is sure to be daunting.

During an interview with The One Ring and Kamiyama during the Annecy Festival, the filmmaker spoke at length about his role as director of the film, and says he first thought a Lord of the Rings anime would be "impossible."

Kamiyama went on to say that the biggest struggle his team faced was adapting the massive world of Middle Earth to animation. He talked about the incredible number of horses that they had to animate as they are a big part of the story and it was not an easy feat. “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”. 

It’s also explained that the animation process entailed using “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.”

Kamiyama explained the reasoning for mocap, saying the “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.”

The filmmaker went on to say, "This is probably the biggest film [I've] ever worked on," and the production is still rolling forward.

The story takes place two centuries before the events of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and it will “explore the exploits of Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, and the creation of Helm’s Deep, the stronghold.”

The movie is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films. “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, Hera, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.”

Brian Cox will provide the voice to the Helm Hammerhand, the mighty King of Rohan, who is a character from the Tolkien book’s appendix. He’s joined by Gaia Wise and Miranda Otto, who is set to reprise her role as Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, from the original trilogy. She will serve as the tale’s narrator.

Philippa Boyens explained that the movie tells a story that is a “very human — and political — struggle.” She went on to say that the film is “not about the Ring, it’s not about the Dark Lord. All of that is very peripheral to the story.”

One of the things that she was attracted to about the story was the examination of honor, 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.”

The story will also include the historical grievances of the Dunlendings, that the lords of Gondor gave what the Dunlendings felt was their land to the Rohirrim.

Boyens goes on to tease a key moment in the movie, saying: “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 also explained that the movie will be both epic and claustrophobic: “So, yes, it begins with these quite large-scale battles, but it actually becomes more intense and … claustrophobic.” And then revealed that “the nature of the film changes almost into a ghost story.”

She said: “As the siege takes hold, as the rumors 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].”

Gala Wise (A Walk in the Woods) will play Hammerhand’s daughter Hera, and Luke Pasqualino (Snowpiercer) will portray Wulf. The rest of the voice cast includes Lorraine Ashbourne (Netflix’s Bridgerton), Yazdan Qafouri (I Came By), Benjamin Wainwright (BBC One’s World on Fire), Laurence Ubong Williams (Gateway), Shaun Dooley (Netflix’s The Witcher), Michael Wildman (Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Jude Akuwudike (Beasts of No Nation), Bilal Hasna (BBC’s Sparks), and Janine Duvitski (ITV’s Benidorm).

The film is currently in production at Sola Entertainment, and the movie will be released in theaters on April 12th, 2024.