Even though it has been nearly two decades since ‘The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King’ was released, the Tolkien spirit is still very much alive today, especially because there are still productions that are based on Tolkien’s Legendarium. While we know that Amazon Prime has been working on ‘The Rings of Power,’ we also know that Warner Bros. has also been working on new movies, with ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ as the only one that has been confirmed.

That means that Warner Bros. hasn’t given up on Tolkien’s Legendarium despite the fact that Amazon Prime has spent billions of dollars when it purchased the series rights to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and has already produced a pretty expensive series. ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is shaping up to be the start of something new for the LOTR side of Warner Bros. So, with that, let’s look at what we know about ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.’

When is the release date?

Warner Bros. has been making bank with the LOTR IP, especially because of the successful run that Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy was able to enjoy. Of course, we already have six LOTR+The Hobbit movies from Warner Bros. side of Tolkien’s Legendarium. Then, while there is no direct connection with the LOTR movies, Amazon Prime has seen its fair share of success with the acquisition of the series license of Tolkien’s Legendarium. The series may have had mixed reactions from fans, but ‘The Rings of Power’ was actually a success.

Of course, Warner Bros. still owns the movie rights to the LOTR IP, and that means that this company is still looking to strike gold once more with ‘The Lord of the Rings’ due to how popular it is among fans. The company is looking to release more films in the future, and the only one that has been confirmed is the animated ‘The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim’ movie, which was supposed to go through its April 2024 release schedule but has since been delayed.

Due to the delays that a lot of production companies experienced, especially with the writers’ strike, ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is now going to be released on December 13, 2024. That means that the movie has been delayed for around eight months.

What will it be about?

We already know that the movie will be released in December 2024, making it one of the more anticipated movies of 2024. But one of the things that makes it even more exciting for a lot of fans is its plot.

Unlike most of the movies set in Tolkien’s Legendarium, ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is an original storyline that isn’t based on any of the books written by Tolkien. Still, it will be based on the same universe established by Tolkien in his works.

‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is based on a script written by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. Its storyline will take place around 250 years before the events of Peter Jackson’s original LOTR trilogy. As such, the setting of the movie is still in the Third Age, which is the same time period that all of Peter Jackson’s movies are set in. However, ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ will be the earliest of all of Warner Bros. LOTR movies in terms of its setting, making it a prequel to the trilogies of both LOTR and ‘The Hobbit.’

As the title of the movie suggests, the film is set to focus on the kingdom of Rohan, which was heavily featured in ‘The Two Towers.’ In the second movie of Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, we saw the people of Rohan retreating to Helm’s Deep after learning that Saruman had mustered an army that was meant to destroy all of Rohan. Helm’s Deep served as the final sanctuary for the people of Rohan during their last stand against Saruman’s army of Uruk-hai.

‘The War of the Rohirrim’ will focus on the untold story behind the events that happened in Helm’s Deep 250 years before the events of ‘The Two Towers’ as it will tell the exploits of the people of Rohan after the time of the legendary Rohan king, Helm Hammerhand.

In this movie, Helm’s people of Rohan are forced to make their last stand against Dunlending Lord Wulf, who was set on destroying Helm’s people for the sake of vengeance over his father’s death. He launches a surprise attack, and the people of Rohan are now looking to make their final stand in the Hornburg, which was the former name of Helm’s Deep. The one leading the charge against Wulf is Hera, the daughter of Helm.

Who will be in it?

The voice cast of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ features Miranda Otto reprising her role as the legendary Éowyn, who will be serving as the narrator of the events of the movie. As such, she won’t be featured during the main storyline of this film but will serve as the one telling the story.

Meanwhile, the one who will be voicing the legendary Helm Hammerhand will be Brian Cox. The other members of the voice cast are Gaia Wise as Hera, Luke Pasqualino as Wulf, and Laurence Ubong Willams as Fréaláf Hildeson, Helm’s nephew and successor to the throne of Rohan. These are just some of the few actors who will be lending their voices to this animated film.

But we do know that Lorraine Ashbourne, Yazdan Qafouri, Benjamin Wainwright, Michael Wildman, Jude Akuwudike, Bilal Hasna, and Janine Duvitski have been cast in roles that are yet to be announced.

How does it tie in with the other movies/shows?

As mentioned, ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ is an entirely original storyline that isn’t based on any of Tolkien’s works. But while that may be true, the movie is somewhat of a prequel to all six of Peter Jackson’s movies, given the fact that this is still a Warner Bros. LOTR movie.

This means that it is directly tied to the Peter Jackson LOTR and ‘The Hobbit’ movies, serving as a storyline that pre-dates all of them by hundreds of years. However, we have no idea whether or not there is a direct correlation between ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ and that of the grander scheme of things, which involves Sauron and the One Ring.

Meanwhile, there is probably no correlation between ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ and ‘The Rings of Power’ because they both come from two different production companies.

While the people behind ‘The Rings of Power’ did indeed admit that they tried to make the series faithful to the Peter Jackson movies so as to make sure that fans don’t get confused about a possible clash between their events, it is unlikely that ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ has any direct connection to the events of ‘The Rings of Power,’ which take place during the Second Age.

As such, it is likely that ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ will be more of a standalone film that focuses on an original story instead of tying the story up to the grander scheme of things happening in ‘The Rings of Power’ or any of Peter Jackson’s six movies.

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