On the occasion of the preview presentation of 20 minutes of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim in Annecy, Warner Bros. shared via EW the first official images of the protagonist and villain of the anime film arriving in December.
Directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus), the film tells the story of Helm Hammerhand, the ancient king of Rohan, from whom the fortress of Helm’s Deep takes its name. We already knew that Philippa Boyens (co-writer of Lord of the Rings) followed the production closely, but today it was confirmed that Peter Jackson And Fran Walsh they will support her as executive producers. The latter were not present in Annecy, but sent a short video in which Jackson is “interrupted” by Gollum, voiced as always by Andy Serkis (who will direct the first of two new live action films announced a few weeks ago).
On the pages of EW, Boyens explains that when she was approached to make the film she immediately thought that “this story would be perfect for an anime because it is very character-driven and contained in its world. It talks about things that work very well with Japanese storytelling.”
“This is the story of the most powerful king in the history of Rohan, someone who defeated his enemies with his bare hands,” Kamiyama tells EW. “Why did his lineage have to end with him? I think there is a lesson in pride and also in the need for responsibility and awareness of one’s own power. We live in a time when, all over the world, we are faced with the reality of war. So what is power? What is the responsibility of those who own it? It’s something they need to think about together with those who don’t have it.”
Boyens and screenwriter Phoebe Gittins expanded Tolkien’s original story. In particular, they wanted to give a certain character a name. “In the appendices that the story is based on, we have these well-drawn male characters, and then there’s this young female character who’s never named — and that really struck me,” Boyens explains. “We know that Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that occurred. But I, and especially the screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her. We felt the burden of being that nameless daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: who was she? How did she live?
Helm’s daughter will be called Hera, and is voiced by Gaia Wise, who explains that she is more like the heroines of Hayao Miyazaki films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind than classic Lord of the Rings heroines like Arwen and Eowyn. “You would give your life for your people,” Wise says. “Compared to Arwen and Eowyn, they are already fully formed women. What I loved about Hèra is that she is fierce, complex, rebellious.”
The antagonist Wulf, voiced by Luke Pasqualino, leads the Dunlending armies against the kingdom of Helm. Wulf’s strength as a character, according to Boyens, lies precisely in the fact that he is not an evil wizard or a dark lord like the most famous villains of The Lord of the Rings. He is merely human, and somehow, that makes him even more dangerous. “He speaks so directly to many of the crises we’re facing today,” Boyens says. “He IS a really fascinating and exciting character. You never know what he’s going to do, and some of the choices he makes are just surprising in a good way.”
So here are the first images of the characters from the film:
The story, set 183 years before the events told by Peter Jackson’s trilogy, will be narrated by Éowynplayed once again by Miranda Otto.
The film will tell the story of Helm Hammerhandthe ninth king of Rohan and the last of his line, and the one who gave his name to Helm’s Deep.
