'The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim' Trailer Proves Animated Spin-Off Movies Are Here To Stay!

When the original film trilogy for The Lord of the Rings released in the early-2000s, a whole new audience fell in love with the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work! With a boatload of money at the box office and acclaim at the Oscars, it became pretty clear the world of Middle Earth was ripe to explore beyond the stories of Frodo and the Fellowship. In 2012, Warner Bros. & New Line Cinema made their first return with an adaptation of The Hobbit, stretched into a 3-film series like the previous. However, unlike The Lord of the Rings where each book got their own film, The Hobbit — a book roughly the size of each individual LOTR book — was split into three cinematic chapters, and as a result, the praise was nowhere near as strong.

Since then, we have still got plenty of content to satiate fans in form of games like Shadow of Mordor and currently a TV series "The Rings of Power," streaming now on Prime Video. On the big screen, though, Lord of the Rings fans been feeling a little left out… That is, until now!

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated film that takes place 200 years before the war of the one ring. Opening on a sizzle reel of clips from the original and “Peter Jackson presents” (cause why wouldn’t you?), the trailer is quick to establish this as a return to Middle Earth in a light not yet shown before. The director in this scenario is acclaimed anime filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama, whose roots go all the way back to being an animator on the original Akira. In other words, this movie is going to look cool as hell, and the trailer is already quick to showcase that with some stunning vistas, striking character designs, and intense action. From a visual standpoint, at the very least, LOTR fans have nothing to worry about so far with this trailer.

Story-wise, it seems like The War of the Rohirrim is borrowing as much from Tolkienian lore as it is the structure of a traditional Shakespearean tragedy. In the trailer, we see Dunlending and his kingdom attempt to make an alliance to strengthen Rohan, which includes his son, Wulf, offering his hand in marriage to the King’s daughter, Héra. Neither Héra wants to marry Wulf, nor is King Helm Hammerhand interested in an alliance, seeing it as a play for their throne (this drama is getting juicy!). Upon the murder of his father, Wulf declares war and revenge against Rohan. The rest of the trailer showcases many battles of the oncoming feud, a brave Héra standing up for her kingdom, and a tease of some guy collecting rings. (Maybe he’s just a jewelry collector, who knows...)

No matter what, this looks like an incredibly fresh take on the legendary fantasy franchise, especially for fans of animation. Ever since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse simultaneously changed the game for animation and proved that animation was a clever avenue for franchise spin-offs, the renaissance of films in that subgenre has skyrocketed! Whether it be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutanty Mayhem, the upcoming Transformers One, and so many more, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim looks to be another strong inclusion to this realm when it releases in theaters December 13th, just in time for the holidays!