An Inside Look At 'The War Of The Rohirrim' New York Comic Con Exclusive Panel
Image Source: JoBlo
At New York Comic Con on October 18, fans at the panel for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim were treated to a special movie clip, interviews, and a goody bag as updates about the highly anticipated animated film were announced.
Stephen Colbert, a known avid J.R.R. Tolkien fan, moderated the panel, which consisted of The War of the Rohirrim director Kenji Kamiyama, producers Philippa Boyens, Jason DeMarco, and Joseph Chou, writers Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou along with actors Brian Cox, Luke Pasqualino, and Gaia Wise.
The panel was one of the first to sell out during panel ticket sales and had a standby line almost as long as the ticketed line. Every seat was filled as the panel started with a brief introduction and then a 10-minute clip from the movie, which releases on December 13. The clip, narrated by Miranda Otto as Éowyn, showed much more of what the movie is going to be about vs. the trailer that came out in August. It featured a much darker beginning, setting the story up to be one of epic proportions, and yet quite different from what we have seen before in Tolkien’s world on screen. As with what we are seeing in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, much of what takes place before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is much darker in Tolkien’s writings, and this film definitely looks to be leaning into that in keeping true to the spirit of the world, lore, and story. The War of the Rohirrim takes place about 200 years before the events in The Hobbit. The clip also featured some glimpses into hints about the future stories.
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J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the story of Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox) in “The Appendices” of The Lord of the Rings, so the story is already there. The panelists discussed how they approached the existing story and brought it to the screen in this animated anime-style movie. One of the biggest things they focused on is the character of Hera (voiced by Gaia Wise), who is one of the central protagonists of the movie, along with Wulf (voiced by Luke Pasqualino). Many fans were confused when they were first introduced to her character because Tolkien doesn’t have a character named Héra. However, Boyens and Kamiyama explained that Héra is actually a character in the story, except that Tolkien never named her. Just that there was a daughter of the King of Rohan, who does actually play a part in the story and then is never heard from again. Boyens and Kamiyama wanted to explore more of that story, especially because it is a precursor to Éowyn’s story as a shieldmaiden in that it’s a strong female character from Rohan. Héra’s character was inspired a lot by Nausicaä from the Studio Ghibli film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Image Source: People.com
As always, there are changes to the story, but overall, the writers said it follows Tolkien’s writings pretty well since the story definitely lends itself to an epic tale to begin with. Kamiyama specifically said that he loved adapting this story to screen and bringing Tolkien’s magnificent stories to animation. He spoke with great reverence of Tolkien’s storytelling, how Tolkien crafted worlds, and how he tried to keep that same reverence with how he approached this story.
The producers and writers talked about what it was like to adapt this story to screen, specifically the animation style and the certain limitations and opportunities it presented. The animation style, which is done in a similar style to Hayao Miyazaki’s films (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro), does lend itself quite well to this story, which encompasses Rohan and Dunland. It might be odd to some, but after seeing the clip at the panel, it fits so well with the story and into the larger epic that it doesn’t seem like it could have been done any other way. It also was entirely done in the 2D, hand-drawn art style, which is not done very much at all anymore, which makes it extra special and shows just how much care and attention went into making this film. The panel also featured a behind-the-scenes featurette that discussed this in length, showed more artwork, and the process of making this film.
Image Source: IGN Africa
After interviewing the director, producers, and writers, Colbert brought out the three main actors: Cox, Wise, and Pasqualino. He asked them questions about getting to know their character and asked them to make the sound they would make if their character got punched, to which Brian Cox responded with barely a sound at all and sent the audience into an uproar. Between Cox and Colbert, there was quite a bit of hilarity on the panel.
Then, there were audience questions and a surprise one at the end that Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings movies and executive producer for The War of the Rohirrim, sent in to try to stump Colbert with some Lotr trivia. Of course, Colbert knew right away the name of the breed of horse that Shadowfax was, a Mearas, so Jackson did not succeed, again, with stumping Colbert in Tolkien lore. Then they announced that there was one more poster they were going to release at the end of the panel, but with much laughter, it turned out to be a painting of Colbert done in the style of the movie’s animation as if he were a part of it. The panel also released official new artwork, maps, and music, teasing that a special guest would be doing one of the main songs in the film.
At the end of the panel, the audience was treated to a special QR code that sent them to a website for special goodies, and they were given gift boxes containing two elaborate, beautiful posters (a map of Rohan/Dunland and a banner of movie artwork) and a character pin.
It was a successful panel and left audience members highly anticipating the film and coming back to Tolkien’s world on screen once more on December 13, 2024.
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