It’s been twenty years since Miranda Otto swept onto movie screens as a totally perfect Éowyn in The Two Towers—and she hasn’t left that role entirely behind. Deadline reports that in the upcoming anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Otto will return as the beloved character, who is the movie’s narrator.
The War of the Rohirrim has also found its Helm Hammerhand in none other than Brian Cox (Succession, X2, Good Omens).
The film is set 183 years before The Hobbit, meaning we probably won’t actually see much of Éowyn. It focuses on Helm, the eventual namesake of Helm’s Deep (which was known as the Hornburg). When a vengeance-seeking enemy attacks suddenly, Helm and the Rohirrirm must make a last stand. Helm’s daughter, Hera, “must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction,” as Deadline explains it.
Hera will be voiced by Gaia Wise (A Walk in the Woods). The ensemble voice cast also includes Jude Akuwudike (Chewing Gum), Lorraine Ashbourne (Bridgerton), Shaun Dooley (The Witcher‘s King Foltest), Janine Duvitski (Midsomer Murders), Bilal Hasna (Extraordinary), Yazdan Qafouri (I Came By), Benjamin Wainwright (Gangs of London), Laurence Ubong Williams (The Capture), and Michael Wildman (Ready Player One).
Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus) directs the film, which Philippa Boyens (who co-wrote Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies) is executive producing. Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou wrote the screenplay, based on a script by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews, which is of course based on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Frequent Tolkien artists Alan Lee and John Howe are also part of the creative team.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be in theaters April 12, 2024.
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