Lord of the Rings fans starved for new content have suddenly been eating very well. Not only did The Rings of Power recently return for a second season on Prime Video, but there's a new Lord of the Rings movie about to hit theaters. That movie is The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and it tells a brand new story of conflict in Middle-earth before the films.
How exactly does The War of the Rohirrim fit into the timeline of Middle-earth? Will we see any familiar characters from the movies show up? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest addition to the Lord of the Rings saga.
Helm Hammerhand and His Family
The War of the Rohirrim takes place 183 years before the Lord of the Rings trilogy and thousands of years after the events of The Rings of Power. It’s a time of relative peace for Middle-earth, albeit an uneasy peace. Sauron still lives and is quietly beginning to consolidate his grip on power and seek out the elusive One Ring. The War of the Rohirrim trailer alludes to this in its final scene, where we see a treasure hunter gathering rings in service of Mordor. Unfortunately for Sauron, the One Ring is still firmly in Gollum’s clutches deep within the Misty Mountains.
In this earlier period of Middle-earth’s Third Age, man has more to fear from his fellow kind than the orcs of Mordor. The War of the Rohirrim focuses on Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) and his family. Helm is the king of Rohan. The “Hammerhand” nickname comes from the fact that his strength and prowess in unarmed combat are legendary. He’s basically the Middle-earth version of Community character Kickpuncher - his punches are just that strong. We see as much in the trailer.
Tolkien used the appendices in the Lord of the Rings novels to flesh out Helm and his two sons, Háma and Haleth. There we learn that Helm presided over Rohan during a prolonged conflict with the race of men known as the Dunlendings (sort of the franchise’s answer to the Wildlings from Game of Thrones). Helm is established as the ninth ruler of Rohan, and the last of the original line of kings.
However, the movie is specifically interested in a character only barely alluded to in Tolkien’s writing, Helm's daughter. She isn’t even named in the original appendices, but she's actually the central protagonist of The War of the Rohirrim. Her name is Hèra (Gaia Wise). A far cry from Tolkien’s typical female characters, Hèra is a rebellious tomboy who takes it upon herself to save her kingdom when the specter of war looms large.
“In the appendices where the story is drawn from, we get these quite interestingly drawn male characters, and then we get this young female character who is never named — and that was really interesting to me,” producer Philippa Boyens said in an interview with People Magazine. “We know Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that happened. But myself, and especially screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her. We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”
Because The War of the Rohirrim is set almost two centuries before the Lord of the Rings movies, fans shouldn’t expect an appearance from familiar characters like Bernard Hill’s King Théoden or Brad Dourif’s Grima Wormtongue. However, the new movie does feature one important link to Rohan’s future. Miranda Otto will reprise the role of Éowyn as she narrates the film. The idea is that The War of the Rohirrim is being presented in the oral tradition, a legend passed down through the generations of Rohan’s citizens.
The Villain of War of the Rohirrim
The War of the Rohirrim is unique in the franchise in that it’s a movie about war between races of men. There’s no Dark Lord looming over the battlefield (though we can’t guarantee Sauron isn’t manipulating the conflict to weaken a potential threat). Helm and his people aren’t battling orcs or Uruk-Hai. This is a story about man vs. man, and the “villain” is unusually sympathetic.
As the trailer shows, the conflict begins when a Dunland noble named Freca (Shaun Dooley) attempts to arrange a marriage between Hèra and his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino). Despite their shared history together, the independent Hèra has no interest in being part of a political marriage. And when it becomes clear that Freca covets the throne of Rohan, Helm calls the whole thing off. This leads to a fistfight between the two rulers, resulting in Helm living up to his Hammerhand moniker and killing Freca with a single punch.
Understandably distraught, Wulf declares war on Rohan and seeks vengeance for his slain father. In the film, we’ll see Wulf rally his own people as well as mercenaries from the Easterlings and Hardrim, building an army capable of taking on what is arguably the most impressive fighting force in Middle-earth at this point.
Again, Wulf is a unique villain for the franchise. Not only is he human, but he’s far more well-intentioned than the evil wizards and battle-scarred orcs we’re used to seeing. He’s simply a son mourning his father. Hèra is clearly willing to fight in defense of her homeland, but winning this battle may depend more on appealing to Wulf’s innate humanity and love than conquering the Dunlendings on the battlefield.
Speaking of the battlefield, The War of the Rohirrim will feature the return of an iconic set piece from The Two Towers. We’ll once again see the fortress known as Helm’s Deep and learn why it acquired that name in the first place.
The Creatures of Middle-earth
This movie may be about a war between men, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be encountering some of the more fantastical creatures of Middle-earth.
The trailer shows several glimpses of the giant eagles seen in both the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. The eagles have proven instrumental in some of the greatest battles of Middle-earth’s Third Age. The question is why they’re getting involved now. Why do these infamously reclusive creatures care about a war between rival factions of men? That may hint at a deeper darkness to the conflict in this film.
We also see several shots of a Mûmakil, the gigantic, elephant-like creatures seen in The Return of the King. The Mûmakil are primarily used by the Haradrim as beasts of war, and they’re terrifyingly effective at that job. Can the warriors of Rohan stand up to these beasts without the aid of an elven marksman like Legolas?
That said, the Mûmakil won’t be the mostly terrifying monster seen in The War of the Rohirrim. The trailer includes a shot of a Mûmakil being attacked and dragged underwater by a tentacled monster. This appears to be the same species as the Watcher in the Water from The Fellowship of the Ring. That beast was guarding the waters outside the Mines of Moria. This probably isn’t the same one, but merely a similar monster stalking another body of water in Middle-earth.
Will We See Any Familiar Lord of the Rings Characters?
As mentioned, the time period of The War of the Rohirrim makes it difficult for many of the familiar faces from the Lord of the Rings trilogy to appear. This is before the time of Aragorn and Frodo. And while elven characters like Legolas, Elrond, and Galadriel are certainly alive in this era, they have little reason to become involved in the affairs of men at this specific point in time. Otto’s Éowyn may wind up being the only Lord of the Rings character to “appear” in this prequel.
Still, there’s room for other cameos, should the filmmakers wish to include them. The elves might not care about Rohan’s plight, but Ian McKellen’s Gandalf might. At this point in the timeline, Gandalf is keeping very busy roaming Middle-earth, righting wrongs, and helping prepare for the inevitable return of Sauron. He surely knows that a weakened Rohan is bad news for everyone.
McKellen himself recently cast doubt on the idea of reprising the Gandalf role in live-action, citing his age. But animation could be a completely different story. And seeing Gandalf in the film would certainly add context to his relationship with the Rohirrim in The Two Towers.
We've also learned that Christopher Lee's Saruman will play a small role in the film. Though Lee passed away in 2015, The War of the Rohirrim is making use of archival dialogue from the Lord of the Rings movies to bring the character back. Based on the LotR appendices, we know that Saruman took up residence in Isengard around the time of this conflict, so the film will likely add more context to his relationship with Rohan.
Which Lord of the Rings character do you most want to see appear in The War of the Rohirrim? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments below:
For more on this new movie, check out IGN's The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review and check out an exclusive 8-minute scene from the film. In other The Lord of the Rings news, a new movie installment titled The Hunt for Gollum was also announced in May, and promises to deliver an Andy Serkis-directed feature focused on Sméagol in 2026.
Note: this article was originally published on 8/22/2024 and updated on 12/11/2024 with the latest information about The War of the Rohirrim.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
