The first thing you should know about the new Lord of the Rings animated feature film, The War of the Rohirrim, is that it’s nothing like The Rings of Power. Yes, both are prequels to the more well-known core stories from J.R.R. Tolkien. And yes, both introduce brand-new characters into the lore of Middle-earth. But the difference with the protagonist of The War of the Rohirrim, hitherto unknown Hèra (Gaia Wise), is that we’re told, right away, that we’re not supposed to know about her. In a moving voiceover narration that pervades the entire movie, Miranda Otto (reprising her role as Éowyn from the Lord of the Rings movies) tells us, “Don’t look for her in old songs.” Hèra is very specifically a hidden character on a hidden adventure, and that’s okay.
In this way, The War of the Rohirrim avoids dot-connecting fan service, despite being deep in the Tolkien canon weeds by the very nature of its existence. And because it’s so well-crafted, this anime feature becomes a stand-alone Middle-earth adventure that is refreshing in both its simplicity and beauty. Tolkien fans may not have been clamoring for this movie, but they will love it now that it’s here.
The premise of The War of the Rohirrim is right in its title. Factions of the Kingdom of Rohan battle in a kind of pseudo-civil war after King Helm (Brian Cox) refuses to give away his daughter Hèra’s hand in marriage to the rival Westmarch clan and King Freca (Shaun Dooley). This squabble starts rowdy and spills over into a massive conflict with two key twists. First, Hèra is actually somewhat sympathetic to Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), the son of Freca she was supposed to marry. Their relationship is like the opposite of star-crossed lovers, sort of like if Rey and Kylo Ren had resisted an arranged marriage and that is what had caused the star wars to happen.
The second twist is probably what longtime fans will be most interested in, because it points to a deeper magic from before the return of the One Ring. At this point in Middle-earth history, we’re about a century before the events of The Hobbit, so Sauron is out there, sending Orcs to gather up trinkets in an attempt to track down all the Rings that were forged in the Second Age. But this movie isn’t about Sauron or those Rings of Power. Instead, the supernatural element is more vague; something happens to King Helm that turns him into a being that isn’t quite human. This concept has already been spoiled a bit by official footage released online, but suffice to say, The War of the Rohirrim gets a lot of mileage from the idea that the legend of King Helm was that his other name was “Hammerhand.”
Helm’s story, like much of the Middle-earth deep-cuts, comes from the appendix of Return of the King. There was also a statue of King Helm in the 2003 version of Return of the King, which is relevant because The War of the Rohirrim very much wants you to think of this movie as taking place in that cinematic universe, despite being an animated movie. Yes, there are a few hints and tributes to previous animated Lord of the Rings efforts (minstrels! goofy Orcs) but overall, the vibe here is to return to Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-earth, allowing you to take a break from The Rings of Power aesthetic. At least, for now.
That said, director Kenji Kamiyama very much forges his own path here and doesn’t attempt to emulate Jackson’s style in anime form. Visually, the movie is very much its own thing, with some of the sequences evoking aspects of Hayao Miyazaki’s best films. Calling The War of the Rohirrim a mash-up of a Miyazaki-esque style with Middle-earth lore might not be entirely fair, but it also does help to describe the scope of the movie. Like a good Miyazaki film, The War of the Rohirrim feels big, even though it's content with compact storytelling.
The first feeling most Lord of the Rings fans will have after the credits roll on The War of the Rohirrim is that you immediately want another movie. Because the credits are done in that same painterly way we got used to on The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogy, there’s something in the back of your mind that makes you think another installment in this vein could be coming very soon.
This isn’t to say that The War of the Rohirrim calls out for a direct sequel to itself, but instead that we should all very much want standalone Middle-earth movies like this to be normalized. Not everything needs to be a trilogy, a massive five-season TV series, or a prequel movie about Gollum. Sometimes one standalone adventure in Middle-earth is enough to remind us why Tolkien’s creation is so wonderful and enduring.
