From Ryan Cordaro

I have to admit that I never really thought that anime would have a big mainstream explosion in terms of people going to the theaters to see it. Sure, they’ve been getting better in recent years. The recent Spy x Family and Demon Slayer movies both did well in theaters, and My Hero Academia’s next movie is set to release this October in North America, but those are born out of manga and already-existing franchises in Japan. The highest grossing anime movie is still the first Pokémon movie from 1999, but I noticed something at the end of last year. Studio Ghibli’s latest release, The Boy and The Heron, did incredibly well in the States, breaking records for Ghibli and its director, Hayao Miyazaki. I did some digging, and more people showed up for its subtitled version in Japanese rather than its star-studded English voice cast. To me, it felt like the tide was turning. Maybe anime is actually going to be a big draw for theaters now, and this feels like its first test, with The Lord of the Rings coming to play in animation since the Rankin/Bass days.

The War of the Rohirrim is set 200 years before the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and follows Helm Hammerhead, a legendary king of Rohan, and his family as they defend their kingdom against attackers. The King rejects a marriage proposal for his daughter, Hera, and this also sparks a brutal siege during the Long Winter, with Helm defending against Lord Freca's son, Wulf. The film will also show how the stronghold Helm’s Deep got its name. Peter Jackson is on as a producer, with original trilogy writer Phillippa Boyens also having a writing credit. The film is directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who’s essentially overseen the Ghost in the Shell series since the 1990s, as well as Blade Runner: Black Lotus and The Ninth Jedi, one of the short films that was a part of Star Wars: Vision, a series of anime shorts set in the Star Wars universe. The studio behind the animation is Sola, which is behind the recent series Ninja Kamui and the Rick and Morty anime, which is airing right now. They’ll also team up with MAPPA for Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichirō Watanabe’s new series, Lazarus, which will air on Adult Swim in 2025.

The English voice cast for The War of the Rohirrim is led by Brian Cox (Succession, the upcoming The Electric State), Gaia Wise (A Walk in the Woods), Luke Pasqualino (Snowpiercer, Shadow and Bone), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Talk To Me), Laurence Ubong Williams, and Shaun Dooley (Saltburn, Eden Lake).

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be released by Warner Bros. in theaters on December 13th, 2024, just in time for the holiday season.

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