Warner Bros., a studio that has developed an allergy to releasing theatrical animated features, has put out a trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which would become its first theatrical release in over two years.
The film is due to release in the U.S. through its New Line Cinema label on December 13, 2024. The film will begin rolling out internationally on December 11. Notably, it is produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the company’s tv and direct-to-video division, not by its feature animation group Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. Japanese studio Sola Entertainment produced the film.
Here is the trailer:
Billed as a prequel to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy, War of the Rohirrim features the involvement of many key figures from Jackson’s earlier films, including Alan Lee (production designer), Richard Taylor (costume/make-up/vfx), and John Howe (illustrator).
Here is the official synopsis of the new film:
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.
Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex tv series) directs the film from a script by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou, and story by Addiss & Matthews and Philippa Boyens.
The film is produced by Boyens, Jason DeMarco, and Joseph Chou. The executive producers are Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson, Sam Register, Carolyn Blackwood, and Toby Emmerich.
