Yesterday, Warner Bros dropped the first trailer for The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, the first film set in Middle-earth to hit the big screen since the third Hobbit film. Unlike that prequel, which has recognizable names like Bilbo and Gandalf, War of the Rohirrim is set some 200 years before the War of the Ring and will feature a whole cast of new characters, some original and some pulled from Tolkien’s Legendarium.

The War of the Rohirrim is the first Middle-earth film to be produced outside of the Jackson films, but this one takes place within the same canon as those films and not the Rings of Power over on Prime. Kenji Kamiyama, director of Blade Runner: Black Lotus and Ultraman, is the one to bring this chapter of Middle-earth to life, using very distinct Japanese anime style and hand-drawn animation techniques. The jury is still out if this style will work well in Middle-earth, but let’s dive into what’s going on here, apart from the movie being fast-tracked solely so Warner Bros. can retain the theatrical rights to Middle-earth films from Embracer Group, with whom they’ve been in a contentious power struggle for control of Tolkien’s works.

The most recognizable voice, aside from Miranda Otto reprising her role as Eowyn, serving as the film’s narrator is Brian Cox as Helm Hammerhand. The film takes place 183 years before The Lord of the Rings films, and will take place in the Kingdom of Rohan. Helm is the ninth King of Rohan, of the First Line of Rulers. He’s known for his short temper and being Helm’s Deep’s namesake. His reign as monarch is notable for its many wars with the Dunlendings, who we see helping Saruman during the events of The Two Towers. Most of what Tolkien wrote about Helm can be read in the Appendices at the back of The Return of the King, which is where most of the contextual backstory is hidden.

While Tolkien did write that Helm Hammerhand had a daughter, he never named her, nor did he dive into any of her accomplishments or personalities. So War of the Rohirrim is an attempt to fill in those blanks by giving his daughter a fully realized character arc. His daughter, now named Hèra, will be the protagonist of the film and follow her plight as the Rohan are invaded by the Dunlendings, led by the rebel Wulf.

Wulf is a Tolkien original character and unlike Hèra, actually got a lot of backstory from the author. Without diving too much into spoiler territory, Wulf and the Dunlendings form an alliance with the Easterlings, the Haradrim, and the Corsairs of Umbar; the latter three would of course join Sauron during the War of the Ring. This is why we see Oliphants attacking Rohan in the trailer for Rohirrim. Tolkien never wrote about the Haradrim attacking Rohan in this conflict, which has left some fans with the feeling that Middle-earth elements were being shoehorned in for the sake of nostalgia. But producer Philippa Boyens did note that the Haradrim were considered enemies of Gondor and that during this conflict, said enemies rose against Rohan, inferring that the Haradrim rode with the Dunlendings.

While it is always exciting to get new adaptations of Tolkien’s works, I’m not so sure anime is the medium to tell those stories. While the art design is no doubt great, I didn’t “feel” like this was a Middle-earth story. My knee-jerk instead was this was a Ghibli movie, not unlike Princess Mononoke, and the “missing frames” animation style seen in anime does seem a bit stiff. But we’ll have to see this December how this depiction of Middle-earth works in this style. I for one am happy to return to Jackson’s Middle-earth on the big screen. Stay tuned for the review!