“By delving into the past and maintaining that connection, I believed we could add depth to the film,” says director Kenji Kamiyama about the highly anticipated original anime feature “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” in a newly released featurette about the film. “This approach also allowed new stories to emerge.”
“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan (voiced by Brian Cox, “Succession”). A sudden attack by Wulf (Luke Pasqualino, “Snowpiercer”), a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg – a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. To save their people, Helm’s daughter, Héra (Gaia Wise, “A Walk in the Woods”), must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
Kamiyama, an award-winning and renowned anime director, thinks that anime is a great fit for “The Lord of the Rings” world. “I think anime is a fantastic medium to try and depict genres like fantasy and science fiction because it’s already an imagined world,” says Kamiyama. “When you are entering into the world of animation, you have a certain agreement with the audience that it is make believe, it is something drawn and imagined.”
Wise, who voices Héra, shares why she thinks fans have an ongoing passion for “The Lord of the Rings,” a world she first read about when she was a little girl, then saw on screen as a young teenager. “I think what keeps people interested in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is the fact that they are all about human nature, things that speak to us, things that speak to our souls,” she says. “They’re about kindness, love, looking after the planet, the aftermath of wars. There is so much that we can relate to across the generations, from people who read Tolkien when Tolkien was writing, to those who read everything he wrote through the years. I think his work will be everlasting, because the world he created is so dramatic, beautiful and heartfelt, and just resonates with every generation.”
Get ready to journey back to Middle-earth when “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” opens in cinemas December 11. #LOTR