What connects The War of the Rohirrim to The Lord of the Rings?

Key Takeaways

• The War of the Rohirrim is connected to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies due to legal rights and timeline placement.
• The film explores the conflict between Rohan and the Dunlendings, adding depth to past events.
• Miranda Otto will reprise the role of Éowyn in the film, highlighting a connection to the original trilogy.

For the first time in ten years, the world of The Lord of the Rings will be returning to the big screen in December with the release of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. The anime film takes place over a hundred years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, and revolves around a portion of Rohan’s history.

In the lead up to the film’s release, you may wonder how exactly it connects to the wider Lord of the Rings franchise as seen on screens. Is The War of the Rohirrim connected to Amazon’s The Rings of Power series? Or is it connected to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies? And how does it connect at all?

Placement in The Lord of the Rings timeline

Distance makes a difference

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim explicitly takes place in the same continuity as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. This is primarily due to legal rights. But, there is also some consideration to be given to Middle Earth’s timeline.

The story takes place just under 200 years before the events of Lord of the Rings and more than 4,000 years after the events of The Rings of Power. Because of this, it is much easier to draw a connection between the events of all the movies than drawing any connections between The War of the Rohirrim and The Rings of Power.

But the timeline placements aren’t the only thing that makes it clear that The War of the Rohirrim is more closely connected to The Lord of the Rings movies rather than The Rings of Power. The other major issue comes down to rights.

The simplest explanation is that Warner Brothers has the rights to make and distribute movies based off of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices. Meanwhile, Amazon has those same exact rights, but for the purposes of TV. Because of this separation of rights, there’s really no room for a connection between WB’s The War of the Rohirrim and Amazon’s The Rings of Power.

However, it is worth noting that both The War of the Rohirrim and The Rings of Power are adapted from the appendices of Return of the King. Nothing beyond the scope of The Hobbit or the contents of The Lord of the Rings trilogy currently has any film or TV rights on the table. Not even the Silmarillion.

Connection to The Lord of the Rings movies

The past of Rohan

With the connection to The Lord of the Rings in mind, what exactly forms the connection in the story? The War of the Rohirrim is set to follow some of the life of Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan, and his family. Particularly, the movie seems to focus a great deal on Helm’s daughter, Hèra, who was unnamed in the books. Fans of The Lord of the Rings movies will undoubtedly realize that Helm Hammerhand is, of course, the namesake of Helm’s Deep.

The story of the movie will follow Helm and Rohan’s ongoing conflict with the Dunlendings. The Dunlendings are a group of wild men. They were previously seen in The Two Towers movie. In the movie, they helped Saruman’s orcs raid various villages of Rohan. The conflict between the Dunlendings and Rohan within the context of The War of the Rohirrim will flesh out their story, adding layers to the conflict. Their hatred for the people of Rohan stems from genuine grievances, not just from Saruman’s manipulation. And they aren’t quite just barbarians.

The Dunlendings are a displaced people. Historically, they once inhabited the lands that Rohan now claims. When Eorl the Young, the founder of Rohan, received these lands as a gift from Gondor, the Dunlendings were forced to move. This created a festering resentment that would fuel conflicts for generations, all the way up to the events of The War of the Rohirrim.

In The War of the Rohirrim, this conflict between the Dunlendings and Rohan will be the main focus. The movie’s primary conflict seems to be incited from a Dunlending lord, Freca, asking to marry Hèra. The conflict is set off by Helm striking Freca so hard that it kills him on the spot. The animosity caused by this event carries all the way into The Two Towers, when the Dunlendings ultimately side with Saruman.

Returning characters and cast

One confirmed, others possible

Given that The War of the Rohirrim takes place over a century before The Lord of the Rings, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any characters from the trilogy pop up in The War of the Rohirrim. Yes, there are plenty of elves that would’ve been alive during the events of the movie, but The War of the Rohirrim is primarily centered around a conflict between races of men.

Another set of characters that could appear in the movie are any of the wizards of Middle Earth, such as Gandalf or Saruman. Either character cropping up in The War of the Rohirrim wouldn’t be as odd as an elf finding their way into the conflict. And, given Saruman’s future significance to the Dunlendings, it could be an interesting call back (call forward?) to have Saruman make an appearance.

Despite all of this, we do know of one returning character and cast member from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But, they’re not quite fully returning. Miranda Otto will be reprising the role of Éowyn in The War of the Rohirrim, as she narrates the movie’s events. Éowyn herself is the niece of Théoden, the King of Rohan during the events of The Lord of the Rings.

Through story significance and a casting connection, The War of the Rohirrim is directly connected to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. While the story presented won’t be as sweepingly consequential as the events seen in other Lord of the Rings media, The War of the Rohirrim still looks to be a beautiful movie that will illuminate some context into the world of The Lord of the RIngs.