Here’s our first look at two of the main characters from Warner Bros. Animation and New Line Cinema’s highly anticipated Middle-earth anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
These images come from Entertainment Weekly and they feature a first look at Héra of Rohan voiced by Gaia Wise and Wulf voiced by Luke Pasqualino, who leads the armies of Dunlendings against Helm’s kingdom.
The movie tells the story of Helm Hammerhand the king of Rohan, and he is voiced by Brian Cox in the film. Director Kenji Kamiyana talked about this story, which he was excited to tell.
“he said: This is the story of the most powerful king in Rohan’s history, someone who defeated his enemies with his bare fists. Why did his lineage have to end with him?
“I think there is a lesson in hubris there and also for a need for responsibility and awareness in their power. We live in an age where, all over the world, we face the reality of war again.
“What, then, is power? What is the responsibility of those who possess it? It is something they need to think about by thinking together with those who don’t.”
Writers and producers Philippa Boyens and Phoebe Gittins expanded on Tolkien’s original story and they wanted to give a certain character her own name… Hèra.
Boyens said: “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.
“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?”
Wise talked about the character she plays saying: “She would lay down her life for her people,” Wise says. “Comparing her to Arwen and Eowyn, they’re already fully formed women. What I loved about Hèra is she’s fierce, she’s complex, she’s rebellious.”
The creative team also offers details on the character Wulf with Boyens sharing: “We have an exceptionally great antagonist in this story. He’s been one of my favorite antagonists to have written across all of the films I’ve worked on.”
Wulf is not an evil wizard or dark lord, he’s just a human and when talking about what makes this character so interesting, Boyens said: “He speaks so directly to a lot of the crises that we’re facing today.”
“He’s a really fascinating character and exciting too. You don’t know what he’s going to do, and some of the choices that he makes are just breathtaking in a good way.”
The movie is set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films. “A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg – a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep.
“Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra of Rohan (Gaia Wise), the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.”
20 minutes of the film was recently screened and the footage was met with “thunderous applause. I can’t wait to see some footage from this movie for myself!
The rest of the voice cast includes Lorraine Ashbourne (Netflix’s Bridgerton), Yazdan Qafouri (I Came By), Benjamin Wainwright (BBC One’s World on Fire), Laurence Ubong Williams (Gateway), Shaun Dooley (Netflix’s The Witcher), Michael Wildman (Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Jude Akuwudike (Beasts of No Nation), Bilal Hasna (BBC’s Sparks), and Janine Duvitski (ITV’s Benidorm).
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim hits theaters on December 13th.