The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is set to release in 2024. The story takes place 183 years before the quest to Mount Doom. The plot follows Helm Hammerhand, the legendary brawler and ninth king of Rohan, voiced by Brian Cox. Miranda Otto is returning to Middle Earth as Eowyn to narrate. The plot is simple, the Dunlendings and Easterlings form an alliance to wage war on Rohan. In Jackson’s Trilogy, Dunlendings were the men who joined with Saruman, and the Easterlings are the oliphant riders.
With Rings of Power dividing the fandom, some fans are apprehensive about this film. This author clings to hope. Amazon’s animated shows have been the highlight of the platform, with hits like Invincible, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and The Legend of Vox Machina, all of which have been exceptionally well-made and well written.
The director of War of the Rohirrim is Kenji Kamiyama, who has received mixed reviews from audiences. There is some positive news, however, as Phillipa Boyens, a writer for Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, is involved as a consultant. The screenplay was written by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, both writers are only credited for The Lovely Bones. It’s difficult to predict the outcome of this film, but there are a few similar cases for comparison.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were relative unknowns when they adapted Game of Thrones, which became one of the most successful shows ever. This comparison has a crucial difference: D&D had a rich series of books to adapt. War of the Rohirrim is based on several pages of lore in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. Conversely, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay were the showrunners for Rings of Power, which was their first credit. We saw how that turned out.
A single fact raises concern: on the cast list there is a character named Hera. This may seem like nothing, but it could be a dark portent. Hera is a Greek Goddess. Rohan is a not-so-inconspicuous proxy for Anglo-Saxon culture, with names like Eorl, Brego, Baldor, Frea, Freawine, Folcred, etc. Hera almost seems to fit, but to the discerning fan, it stands out like an oliphant in a hobbit hole. It could show blatant disregard or at the least ignorance of the source material.
If the writers are faithful to the source material, we could be in for the greatest LOTR adaptation since the Jackson Trilogy. Helm Hammerhand didn’t get his name because he never used a drill—this guy killed people with one punch and went into battle with only his fists. If the final product is a stinker, at least we’ll get to see heavy calvary charging oliphants again.
If you’re craving more LOTR while you wait for War of the Rohirrim, check out this series on film adaptations of Tolkien.
