Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an animated movie that serves as a prequel to the live-action Lord of the Rings films.
The War of the Rohirrim will be released on December 13. Set roughly 200 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, this prequel reveals the untold story of Rohan’s former ruler, Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox).
The trailer gives us a much better idea of the plot of the film, which deals with a bloody conflict between Rohan and the Dunlendings. After an arranged marriage between Helm’s daughter Hèra (Gaia Wise) and the Dunland prince Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) falls through and leads to the death of Wulf’s father Freca (Shaun Dooley), Wulf declares war on Rohan. As Helm rallies his kingdom, the defiant Hèra may prove to be the only hope for Rohan’s survival.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim also features the voice of Miranda Otto, who reprises her role as Éowyn in her role as the film’s narrator.
Like Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The War of the Rohirrim draws largely on J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices from the Lord of the Rings novels, fleshing out some of the backstory and characters Tolkien created to enrich the world of Middle-earth. But in the case of Hèra, the film is delving much deeper than Tolkien himself ever did.
“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,” producer Philippa Boyens said in an interview with People Magazine.
“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?”
As for The Rings of Power, that series makes its return to Prime Video on August 29. At IGN Live we got a closer look at how The Rings of Power will continue its story with Season 2. A new movie installment titled The Hunt for Gollum was also announced in May, and promises to deliver an Andy Serkis-directed feature focused on Sméagol in 2026. However, fans shouldn’t necessarily hold their breath for Ian McKellen to reprise the role of Gandalf.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
