Fantasy meets anime in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an upcoming film directed by Kenji Kamiyama, but there has been a scarcity of information about it thus far. That all changed thanks to an exclusive story from Entertainment Weekly, where an interview conducted with producer Philippa Boyens, director Kamiyama, and star Gaia Wise gave us more to chew on.
“This is the story of the most powerful king in Rohan’s history, someone who defeated his enemies with his bare fists,” Kamiyama shared about the central character, Helm Hammerhand, and the rest of his family. “Why did his lineage have to end with him? I think there is a lesson in hubris there and also for a need for responsibility and awareness in their power. We live in an age where, all over the world, we face the reality of war again. What, then, is power? What is the responsibility of those who possess it? It is something they need to think about by thinking together with those who don’t.”
Part of this exploration is to dive even deeper into the source material, and in this case, the creative team focused on Helm’s daughter, a previously unnamed character who will now be known as Hèra.
“In the appendices where the story is drawn from, we get these quite interestingly drawn male characters, and then we get this young female character who is never named — and that was really interesting to me,” Boyens said. “We know Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that happened. But myself, and especially screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her. We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”
Standing on the opposing end is Wulf, the main antagonist of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, who is played by Luke Pasqualino (Snowpiercer). For Boyens, this is one character she cites as “one of my favourite antagonists to have written across all of the films I’ve worked on.”
“He speaks so directly to a lot of the crises that we’re facing today. He’s a really fascinating character and exciting too. You don’t know what he’s going to do, and some of the choices that he makes are just breathtaking in a good way.”
The War of the Rohirrim is one of the many steps Warner Bros. is taking to leverage The Lord of the Rings IP even further. There’s also the upcoming second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and a pair of new films centred on the character of Gollum/Smeagol.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases in theaters December 13.
