“The Lord of the Rings” fans have had a very busy year.
After it was announced that “The Rings of Power” Season 2 will be released Aug. 29, a new “Lord of the Rings” movie was announced, entitled “The Hunt for Gollum,” as previously reported by the Deseret News.
And those aren’t the only new Tolkien-related projects in the works. An animated film, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” will also be released later this year.
Directed by anime filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama, the film will delve into a battle during the Third Age of Middle-earth, per IndieWire.
Here’s everything we know about the film.
What will ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ be about?
According to IndieWire, “The anime film will be set 261 years before the events of” the live-action movies and “will concern itself with an event where the villainous Wulf, a lord of Dunland, seeks revenge against the legendary king of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand, whose mighty horn would one day crown the top of the fortress of Helm’s Deep.”
Wulf, seeking revenge for the death of his father, aims to destroy Helm and his horse lords of Rohan — and starts a war. According to Deadline, the battle “helped shaped Middle-earth heading into ‘LOTR.’”
According to ScreenRant, “The War of the Rohirrim” is true to J.R.R. Tolkien’s original works.
Helm was alive 250 years before “The Lord of the Rings” during the Third Age of Middle-earth, which is a “relatively unexplored period” of Tolkien’s lore, the article said.
Will Gandalf be in ‘The War of the Rohirrim’?
According to ScreenRant, Gandalf is alive during the events of “The War of the Rohirrim.”
As a Maia — or, as ScreenRant put it, a “demi-god-like being” who helped create the world — Gandalf arrived in Middle-earth in the Second Age. Which means that “he would have been wandering this realm for over 2,000 years.”
But, while Gandalf was alive during the events in the film, he “was notably observing the Hobbits of the Shire,” according to ScreenRant. So it’s likely that he won’t make an appearance in “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.”
‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ cast
“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” boasts a stacked cast.
Most notably for fans of “The Lord of the Rings,” the cast includes Miranda Otto, who will narrate the film and reprise her role as Eowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan, according to IndieWire.
The cast also includes Luke Pasqualino as Wulf and Brian Cox as Helm.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ release date
“The War of the Rohirrim” will be released in theaters Dec. 13.