The Lord of the Rings movies featured an incredibly talented cast and one of the many outstanding actors was Christopher Lee, who portrayed Saruman in Peter Jackon’s film trilogy and again later in The Hobbit trilogy. Lee passed away in 2015, but it was recently revealed that the actor’s voice will be used for the role of Saruman in the upcoming anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
The highly anticipated anime movie is set 183 years before Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and tells the story of Rohan’s king Helm Hammerhand and his family as they defend the kingdom against an army of Dunlendings. We’re not sure to what extent Saruman will appear in the movie, but Lee’s voice will be used for the evil wizard.
In an interview with TheOneRing, The War of the Rohirrim producer Philippa Boyens explained that they obtained permission from Lee’s late wife, Gitte, to use previously recorded lines The Hobbit to help bring the anime’s version of Saruman to life.
“When we reached out to Gitte, Lady Lee, who’s sadly no longer with us… she said the thing that I think Peter [Jackson] felt in his heart, which was that Sir Christopher would have wanted this,” Boyens said. “And so we went into his records, I got to go back and hear his voice, not just doing the lines, but talking to us as we were recording them. And we based it on a line from The Hobbit, which is ‘Are you in need of assistance, my lady?’ A version of that line.”
“And we thought, okay that’s a line, we can see how many takes he did of that. Can we use it? Can we find a new read on it and change it up a little bit,” she continued. “And our brilliant guys did that. But it is an authentic bit of Christopher Lee performance that it’s based on.”
“To be honest, we didn’t if we could find that, and so just as sort of, like, due diligence, let’s see if there is a cast-alike as someone who can do the voice out there,” Boyens added. “Now, I know the internet is going to say, of course, ‘There’s a million people who could have done Chris Lee’s voice,’ but, do you know what? I don’t think so. I’m so glad we used his own voice, and it’s fantastic.”
The Oscar-winning Boyens co-wrote the screenplay for Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series as well as the three-part film The Hobbit. She’s also a writer and producer of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which is directed by award-winning filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama (the “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” and “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” TV series). Sola Entertainment provided the traditional 2D animation, which is inspired by Jackon’s films.
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.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases in theaters on December 13, 2024.
