First trailer for Lord of the Rings anime movie The War of the Rohirrim promises a “groundbreaking journey back to Middle-earth”

A failed marriage proposal sparks war in the epic teaser for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

The first trailer for new anime movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is here – and it looks just as epic as you imagined.

The teaser, which you can watch above, promises franchise fans “a groundbreaking journey back to Middle-earth”, as it opens with clips from Peter Jackson’s acclaimed movie trilogy before shifting to the animated story.

Set nearly 200 years before Frodo Baggins set out in search of the One Ring, The War of the Rohirrim is set to explore the blood-soaked era of the mighty King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand (Succession’s Brian Cox), and the origins of the fortress at Helm’s Deep. You know, the one featured heavily in 2002’sThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towerslengthy battle scene?

“We’ve come with an offer to strengthen Rohan,” a character named Freca proposes to the sovereign, as another, Freca’s son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), addresses Hammerhand’s daughter Héra: “I will seek your hand in marriage.”

“Our fathers speak as if I were not even in the room. I do not want to marry you,” Héra (Gaia Wise) tells Wulf in a later scene. “You do not sneak an alliance, you sneak a throne,” Hammerhand growls later on, before he kills Wulf’s father in hand-to-hand combat.

“You will pay for this with your life,” a teary-eyed Wulf vows, setting up the fantasy flicks’s premise.

Directed by Ghost in the Shell’s Kenji Kamiyama, the film also features the voice talents of Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, and Miranda Otto, who reprises her live-action role as Éowyn, with the character narrating the events of the film from the future.

Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter

Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox

Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh are credited as executive producers. “We did not want to make an animated version of a Peter Jackson film,” fellow executive producer Jason DeMarco previously toldScreendaily. “We wanted to make a Kenji Kamiyama animated feature film that lives within that world. That’s a difficult task that requires a lot of delicate balancing between two types of filmmaking that haven’t collided like this before.”

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases theatrically on December 13. While we wait, check out thebest animeyou should be watching now and the latest from 2024’s biggestnew anime.

If live-action Lord of the Rings is more your thing, here’s everything you need to know aboutThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2.

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.

One of the year’s best anime movies is getting a streaming release – and it’s surprisingly soon

New Haikyu anime movie is coming to Netflix a lot sooner than you’d think in some territories

Negasonic Teenage Warhead is about to save the Multiverse in her own one-shot, but first she and Deadpool have to catch an escaped pig