Kenji Kamiyama’s prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic saga travels 183 years before the original trilogy to bring Héra, a forgotten, unsung character, into the spotlight with a tale of courage and resilience; in theaters December 13.
Right from the start, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was a family affair. And not just the story, which centers around Helm Hammerhand and his daughter.
“Working with mum, that was a high,” shares screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, whose mother, Philippa Boyens, serves as producer on the film and co-wrote Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. “And, as you can imagine, there were some battles to be fought.”
Gittins’ writing partner Arty Papageorgiou, through laughter, inserts, “They were two fierce shieldmaidens going head-to-head in combat to the death over the tiniest spellings of words.”
A humored Gittins continues, “But I’m so fortunate. She is the greatest mentor we could have asked for, and just happened to be my mother.”
Warner Bros. Animation and New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, directed by Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ Kenji Kamiyama, is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of Jackson’s films, based on the epic, award-winning fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien. The latest film in the franchise, which features 2D animation with anime-inspired character designs, tells the story of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan, through his daughter Héra who was previously unnamed and nearly forgotten in Tolkien’s books.
When Freca (Shaun Dooley), the ruthless leader of the Dunlendings visits Hammerhand in Rohan and proposes marriage between Freca’s son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) and Helm’s daughter Héra (Gaia Wise), both Helm (Brian Cox) and Héra reject the proposal. A fist-to-cuffs fight between Helm and Freca ensues, in one punch, Helm unintentionally kills the Dunlendings’ leader. Wulf’s attempt to attack Helm leads to his banishment. Years later, again seeking vengeance for the death of his father, Wulf 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 film releases Friday, December 13. Check out the trailer:
“It’s strange because she may have gotten lost in the zeitgeist of talking about these stories, but she’s very central to the actual storytelling,” notes Papageorgiou. “Helm and Freca may have their reasons to go head-to-head, playing into the bloodlines and old fractures within the Rahim people and the Dunlendings. But Héra was used to inflame those old beefs. People may not speak about her because she’s unnamed but she’s central to the event.”
As the film begins, the narrator states, “Do not look for tales of her in the old songs. There are none.” And, indeed, all that is known of Héra before Kamiyama’s film is that she was Helm’s daughter, whose rejected marriage proposal to Wulf started a war. The previously unnamed maiden’s fate during that event was also unrecorded, though her brothers’ deaths and father’s passing are all noted.
“Tolkien really did put her at the heart of this conflict, and we wanted to embrace that element and open up different avenues for us to explore with her,” says Gittins. “We didn’t want to do the ‘warrior princess’ character with her because I personally feel you can sometimes fall into the trap of just writing a male character as a woman. We really wanted Héra to embrace her fears, her vulnerabilities, all the questions she asks herself. She wears her heart on her sleeve. Everything she did was driven by the love of her people. We drew a lot of inspiration from Éowyn.”
So, it only makes sense that actor Miranda Otto, who played Rohan shieldmaiden Éowyn in Jackson’s films, would narrate for The War of the Rohirrim as Éowyn.
“There’s also something Frodo-esque about Héra in the sense that she’s one of the least likely people to end up leading this journey and this battle as she initially isn’t searching out for it or wanting it as a personal goal or need,” says Papageorgiou. “She’s not driven by ego or power or glory. She’s not too far away from the other heroes of Tolkien’s world, to be honest.”
But the film’s animation – headed by Warner Bros. Animation and Kenji Kamiyama with Sola Entertainment – certainly charts a new course for The Lord of the Rings film adaptations. The only prior animated adaptations include Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated film The Lord of the Rings and the 1980 Rankin/Bass animated TV special The Return of the King. Combining anime artists with concept artists from the original live-action film trilogy, The War of the Rohirrim is The Lord of the Rings’ first step into the modern animation world, with anime-styled 2D characters existing in the same space as highly detailed landscape paintings.
“Kenji Kamiyama is so meticulous, and it was so cool to get to see him work,” shares Gittins. “I was so blown away by how he rendered the characters that I forgot I was watching anime at one point. I just got so pulled in.”
While anime has become known for its Shonen action and fight sequences (not a bad pairing for a shieldmaiden story complete with “Mûmakil,” or battle elephants), it was the quiet moments that Papageorgiou felt made the animation really shine in Tolkien’s majestic Middle Earth.
“When people talk about this type of thing, they say, ‘With anime you get to do battles that haven't been seen before, or you get to have these fantastical creatures,’” shares Papageorgiou. “But, for me, what's so interesting about it is the hand drawn touch gives it a sense of warmth. With Éowyn’s VO, it just feels organic and of the Earth, which is very true to Peter’s version of storytelling. Between the anime artists, the animation design team and concept artists, there was a deep respect of what had come before us. Everyone was on the same page of, ‘How can we entrench this film with the films that we all love and marry that with the humanity that comes through hand drawn animation?’”
One of the biggest challenges for the crew was deciding how much could be hand-drawn, considering the scale of the film and the timeframe they had to finish.
“We were also told birds and horses were quite difficult to animate because of their movements and how that creates a lot of problems,” shares Gittins.
“And what do we have all over the film?” adds Papageorgiou. “Horses and birds.”
Gittins and Papageorgiou admit there were some scenes that didn’t make it past concept due to constraints, but there are still plenty of epic sequences, with birds, snowstorms, and legions of horses in tow against backdrops of mountain ranges that look like they popped right out of Tolkien’s novels.
“Kenji has really done his research and he’s taken so much care to bring you something familiar but also new and exciting,” says Gittins. “The lighting on that opening shot coming down to the mountains is stunning. And we got to see all the layers of that process happen from the pencil drawings. When the layers of lighting started to be added in, Arty and I looked at each other like, ‘Oh my god.’”
Papageorgiou adds, “I really just hope the film creates the same level of excitement and inspiration that I had when I first went and saw The Fellowship of the Ring at Christmas time when I was 12, or maybe even younger. If we can do that for other kids – and adults, for that matter – that’d be amazing.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
