Summary

The
Lord of the Rings
franchise is making a major comeback with new live-action films and an animated prequel,
The War of the Rohirrim
.
The influence of Japanese anime, specifically Hayao Miyazaki’s
Nausicaä
, can be seen in the storytelling and character development of the new film.
Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are taking a bold and innovative approach by embracing anime in
The War of the Rohirrim
, expanding the franchise’s creative possibilities.

2024 is turning out to be a major year for the resurgence of The Lord of the Rings. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema recently announced that they are developing two new live-action films based on the world of Middle-Earth, the first of which is tentatively titled The Hunt for Gollum and will see Andy Serkis reprise his most famous role in addition to directing the picture. On top of that, the Prime Video series The Rings of Power has returned with its second season, which is set to debut with a much darker tone later this summer.

Then, there’s The War of the Rohirrim, the first new Lord of the Rings film in a decade, which is set to open in theaters this December. In the increasingly crowded blockbuster franchise landscape, The Lord of the Rings must embrace new and exciting ideas to stand out from the noise, and The War of the Rohirrim is doing just that. Instead of being a live-action adventure film, it is an animated feature directly influenced by Japanese anime.

Directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus), the film is a Lord of the Rings prequel set in the kingdom of Rohan nearly 200 years before the adventures of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. It centers on Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, after whom Helm’s Deep gets its name. This is one of the lesser-known stories found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, but it’s one that includes a lot of drama and warfare that could make for a very entertaining film. When bringing this story to life, Kamiyama and the rest of the creative team on The War of the Rohirrim took inspiration from many classic anime films, including one of Studio Ghibli’s most underrated.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is one of the earliest films directed by legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Released in 1984, the film is a sort of proto-Studio Ghibli movie, as it was produced before the iconic animation studio was founded in 1985. All four Ghibli co-founders – Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma – worked on Nausicaä together, and the film’s success gave them the resources they needed to found Ghibli. The film was also an adaptation of Miyazaki’s manga series of the same name, which was published from 1982 to 1994.

Related Nausicaä: A Look Back at Miyazaki’s First Masterpiece One of Hayao Miyazaki’s first films, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, has stood the test of time and remains of one Studio Ghibli’s best fantasies.

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are known for their high fantasy anime films, with iconic releases like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and more. Nausicaä, however, may be the most fantastical film found in Miyazaki’s catalog. It is set in a post-apocalyptic future, a thousand years after the Earth was ravaged by nuclear war. In this new world, different tribes and civilizations carve out their own existence while navigating around the countless dangerous bug-like creatures and poisonous environments that cover the planet. It doesn’t feel like Earth at all; instead, it takes on a totally alien environment and atmosphere. Tonally, the film feels very reminiscent of other major fantasy franchises like Frank Herbert’s Dune.

How Studio Ghibli Is Influencing War of the Rohirrim

When speaking with EW about adapting the story of The War of the Rohirrim, producer Philippa Boyens says that she and screenwriter Phoebe Gittens were particularly drawn to Helm Hammerhand’s daughter, a character that is never named in Tolkien’s text but plays a crucial role in the story as it unfolds. For this film, the lack of detail surrounding that character gave the creative team room to explore the story in an exciting new way. Boyens said, “We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”

This is where the influence of Miyazaki and Ghibli comes into the picture. The eponymous protagonist in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a young woman who is the princess of her home kingdom, the Valley of the Wind. She is a strong, self-determined character who maintains an earnest respect for the natural world around her. She ultimately faces the biggest conflict of her life when another more industrial civilization upsets the natural order and threatens to destroy the delicate peace of her home.

Related The Lord of the Rings: Revisiting Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 Animated Film Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films are the most loved adaptation of Tolkien’s material, but Ralph Bakshi’s film deserves recognition too.

When crafting Hammerhand’s daughter, who is given the name Hèra in the film, the creatives behind The War of the Rohirrim took a lot of inspiration from films like Nausicaä as well as heroines from Tolkien’s text, such as Arwen and Eowyn. Hèra will be voiced by Gaia Wise in the movie, who specifically cites Nausicaä and the other women in Miyazaki’s films as her inspiration. “She would lay down her life for her people,” Wise said, also speaking with EW. “What I loved about Hèra is she’s fierce, she’s complex, she’s rebellious.”

The Lord of the Rings Is Embracing New Ideas

The development of The War of the Rohirrim also speaks to how Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are looking to expand what The Lord of the Rings can be on-screen. While other franchises, like The Matrix and Blade Runner, have experimented with developing original anime series before, it’s rare for a major Western studio to produce and release a full theatrical film in the Japanese animation style. Franchises like Spider-Man, Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have all produced major animated films lately, but by embracing anime with The War of the Rohirrim, the creative team behind this new Lord of the Rings film is taking a decidedly bold and innovative approach to the franchise.

Boyens has said that she was initially hesitant to come aboard the project, but the decision to make the film in an anime style won her over. “When they suggested anime, that’s when my brain really started whirring,” she said. “I immediately felt that it would work for anime because [this story] is so character-based and also contained within its own world. It speaks to certain things that work really well with Japanese storytelling.”

As the Lord of the Rings franchise enters this new era of films and television series, it’s good to see that there is still the room and creative freedom for films like The War of the Rohirrim to exist. While there has yet to be another animated Lord of the Rings film announced, the confirmation that two new live-action films are in development as of WB’s endeavor to expand the franchise into a Star Wars-esque franchise is a reason for optimism. This active desire to develop many more Lord of the Rings films likely means that if The War of the Rohirrim is able to make a big splash upon its release, we’ll probably see more movies set in Middle-Earth sooner than later. The War of the Rohirrim is currently set to release on Dec. 13, 2024. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is streaming on Max.