The Lord Of The Rings Animated Film Is Delayed, So The War Of The Rohirrim Will Have To Wait

Everyone knows that it's an awfully self-destructive idea to let the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes drag on in perpetuity, harming countless below-the-line crew members, theater owners, and more who rely on the film and television industries to make a living — everyone, that is, except for the AMPTP themselves, apparently. We recently wrote about one of the latest dominoes to fall as the highly-anticipated "Dune: Part 2" was pushed back to next year, becoming the latest casualty of the studios' abject refusal to present reasonable counterproposals in good faith as the sides struggle to work out a fair contract. Now, fantasy nerds are the latest fans to be victimized by the producers' unwillingness to, frankly, get their s*** together.

Deadline reports that the upcoming "The Lord of the Rings" anime film, "The War of the Rohirrim" (which /Film's Rafael Motamayor was lucky enough to preview footage from earlier this year), has officially been delayed as a result of Warner Bros.' scheduling reshuffle. With its original April 2024 release date ceded to "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire" (which itself had to make way for the new release date of "Dune: Part 2"), fans can now expect "The War of the Rohirrim" to drop several months later than expected on December 13, 2024. Admittedly, any more amount of time afforded to overworked and overstressed animators is nothing but a good thing, potentially ensuring that they have enough runway to deliver a quality product worthy of the franchise's lofty standards. Plus, there's always been something special about "The Lord of the Rings" movies and a holiday season release, dating back to Peter Jackson's Middle-earth trilogies becoming a yearly December tradition.

Read on for more details!

Directed by Kenji Kamiyama and written by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, "The War of the Rohirrim" takes place almost 200 years before the events of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. For those wondering how this connects to the previous films (a fair concern, considering that Prime Video's uber-expensive "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" series has a tenuous-at-best connection to the Peter Jackson movies, despite clearly borrowing a lot of the visual and aesthetic designs), the anime film has been described as a companion piece to the trilogy. The prequel details the origins of the famous fortress of Helm's Deep, which took center stage in the sprawling battle sequence seen in "The Two Towers." (Check out our handy explainer on exactly what this new film will cover.)

Perhaps in an attempt to get out in front of fans who might have dismissed "The War of the Rohirrim," the film features a pretty interesting voice cast led by a returning Miranda Otto as Éowyn (reprising her role as the shieldmaiden of Rohan from the Peter Jackson films, though only as a narrator) and "Succession" star Brian Cox as the main hero, Helm Hammerhand. The rest of the cast includes "Bridgerton" star Lorraine Ashbourne, Yazdan Qafouri, Benjamin Wainwright, Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, Michael Wildman, Jude Akuwudike, Bilal Hasna, and Janine Duvitski.

This isn't the only "The Lord of the Rings" project in the offing, as we previously reported Warner Bros. Discovery's plans for "multiple 'The Lord of the Rings' movies" in the years ahead. Buckle up, folks. These new adventures set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth have only just begun.