The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024) on Netflix
PG-1320242h 14mActionAdventureAnimationDramaFantasy
Freca, a Dunlending lord, comes to King Helm Hammerhand's hall with his son Wulf, pressing a marriage to Héra that would put a Dunlending claim on Rohan. Héra wants no husband.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.3/1041,950 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes49%
Trailer
Plot summary
Freca, a Dunlending lord, comes to the hall of King Helm Hammerhand with his son Wulf, who grew up alongside Helm's daughter Héra. Freca objects to the match being planned for Héra with a lord of Gondor, and he pushes for a marriage between Wulf and Héra instead. Such a marriage would give the Dunlendings a claim on Rohan's throne. Wulf is willing; Héra has no wish to marry anyone. Helm and Freca carry their quarrel outside and fight, and a single blow from the king's fist kills Freca, earning Helm the name Hammerhand. Devastated, Wulf vows revenge and leaves Rohan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- New Line Cinema fast-tracked the anime prequel in June 2021 to stop the studio from losing its film adaptation rights to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels.
- The producers named Helm Hammerhand's unnamed daughter Héra after Hera Hilmar, the Icelandic actress who starred in Peter Jackson's and Fran Walsh's film Mortal Engines, spelling it "Héra" based on Old English.
- An archival recording of Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in Jackson's films and died in 2015, was used for the character's voice, with permission from Lee's wife Birgit Kroencke before her death in June 2024.
- To make the traditional 2D animation, actors performed every scene in motion capture that was translated into 3D animation in Unreal Engine; the 3D version set camera angles and movements and was used as reference for the hand-drawn 2D art rather than rotoscoping.
- By June 2024 the film ran two-and-a-half hours after being envisioned as a 90-minute film, and more than 60 companies were brought in to help finish the animation.
- The film's original song "The Rider", performed by Paris Paloma and written by Phoebe Gittins and composer David Long, was released digitally by WaterTower Music on 15 November 2024 alongside an official music video.
- AMC Theatres announced a unique popcorn bucket for the film in the shape of a 27-inch-long war hammer, following a trend of noteworthy popcorn buckets for films earlier in 2024.
