But the creative team behind The War for Rohirrim — with Adult Swim and Toonami creative director Jason DeMarco among those producing — fought on, and in December we’re getting a feature-length animated Lord of the Rings movie. Good news: the first trailer for the film looks gorgeous.
Inspired by the appendices of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, The War for Rohirrim turns the clock back 200 years to Helm Hammerhand, the king of Rohan, and his daughter Hera as they face off against an army of savage Dunlending brothers. Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand-alone complex), the final product looks a tiny bit bigger than anything we got from the (good in its own way!) 1978 Lord of the Ringswith all due respect to Ralph Bakshi.
This is just the beginning of a Lord of the Rings revival from Warner Bros., which is likely feeling some pressure from its corporate overlords to make this instrumental piece of IP a reality. Andy Serkis, announced in May , will return to direct and star in a new live-action Lord of the Rings film, again with Jackson’s blessing (and key collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens working on the screenplay).
But can The Lord of the Rings: The War for Rohirrim Breaking Through to the Masses? Anime films are increasingly popping up in the U.S. box office top 10, and data suggests audiences are ready for a studio that can deliver on the level of adult cinema animation. We’ll know if Kamiyama and company deliver when the film opens on December 13.