The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Could Pull it Off

One of the most anticipated and ambitious projects of the year is the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim anime, produced by Philippa Boyens, Jason DeMarco, and Joseph Chou, with directing being done by Kenji Kamiyama. At the New York Comic Con, the main stage was packed with fans of fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien to see what this new animated project entails. Will it live up to the legacy of the man that arguably redefined the fantasy genre? Based on the previews we saw and what was discussed, yes.

The preview shared at the panel emphasized the scale of the story with a voice-over from Miranda Otto. In a winter storm, we see an army encampment as an unknown creature stalks and kills soldiers. While some of the designs looked a little flat, they were also bursting with detail. It felt like I was watching a more action-packed Ghibli film in many ways, but the music stood out and got the crowd’s attention. The preview featured familiar leitmotifs from the Lord of the Rings films, and the main stage burst with applause throughout. It was an excellent moment to be a Lord of the Rings fan, a sentiment echoed by the panel’s host, Stephen Colbert.

It is no shock to anybody that Stephen Colbert is a diehard Tolkien fan. He wore his enthusiasm on his sleeve, talked with the guests with the same giddy enthusiasm that any fan would when they met their heroes and was even quizzed on the spot by a surprise video message from Peter Jackson about a particular breed of horse in Tolkien’s world. A joke was made that if Stephen Colbert could not answer a question about Lord of the Rings, it wasn’t Stephen Colbert. One of the panel’s highlights was at the end, where a custom piece of artwork was shown of Stephen as an animated character in Lord of the Rings.

Enough about the hosts and the preview; what about the panel itself? What did the staff have to say about such an ambitious project? According to director Kamiyama, in the past, fantasy was seen as something for children. It eventually evolved into something more mature, and Tolkien was most likely a big part of that. It became a whole new genre. What is unique about fantasy settings is that you need to make up all the details from scratch. If you want a particular creature to be in your story, you need to be able to come up with what that creature looks like because that creature doesn’t exist in the real world, and no one could craft things like Tolkien.

How do you translate that to anime? Thankfully, it appears that no doors were necessarily closed for the animation staff when it came to working on this film. The staff said they felt like kids in a toy box with full access to everything they could get their hands on regarding Tolkien’s other adaptations, particularly the live-action films. Even though this film takes place about 200 years before The Hobbit, having access to other Lord of the Rings media meant they could keep things consistent in creature designs or topography. They would collaborate with an artist in Japan if they needed something new from scratch. 

After discussing the film’s production, the focus shifted to the actors, Luke Pasqualino, Gaia Wise, and Brian Cox, who stole the show with his responses. Luke and Gaia recounted some of their experiences working on the film. Gaia noted that the inspiration for her character and performance seemed to partially come from her memories of Nausica and the Valley Of The Wind. There was also a great emphasis on how reactions and efforts during the recording process were difficult, given that Luke and Gaia were relatively new to the process.

The panel’s highlight was when Brian Cox recounted what it was like recording for the project. Despite his age, he still feels like a nine-year-old, letting his imagination run wild when he’s in the booth recording. There is a real passion and reverence for the craft, and you can tell that everyone immediately recognized him as one of the most seasoned people in the entire room. The way he sets up the relationship between Helm and Gaia is also charming, as their father-daughter relationship remains at the heart of the film. Truly a gem of a man who understood the assignment; I cannot wait to see what these talented people bring to the table in December when the film comes out.