A new feature length film has been announced by New Line Cinema (Warner Bros), Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim! However, it will be animated and not live action, but will be released in theaters.

The film will be directed by anime filmmaker, Kenji Kamiyama (who recently did the Ultraman animated series for Netflix, as well as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), and Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (who wrote The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for Netflix as well) wrote the screenplay. Voice actor casting is currently underway.

While Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are not involved, Phillipa Boyens (screenplay writer for the live action films) will be involved as a consultant.

Carolyn Blackwood, Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, and Richard Brener, President and Chief Creative Officer, New Line Cinema, put out a statement regarding the project:

“All of us at New Line feel a deep affinity for the extraordinary world J.R.R. Tolkien created, so the opportunity to dive back into Middle-earth with the team at Warner Bros. Animation is a dream come true. Fans know Helm’s Deep as the stage for one of the greatest battles ever put to film and, with many of the same creative visionaries involved and the brilliant Kenji Kamiyama at the helm, we couldn’t be more excited to deliver a fresh vision of its history that will invite global audiences to experience the rich, complex saga of Middle-earth in a thrilling new way.”

The War of the Rohirrim will be set in the Third Age, about 200 years prior to the events of The Hobbit, and will chronicle the ninth King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand, and his reign. It will address his life and rule of that violent era and also tell the story of the fortress of Helm’s Deep which was named after Hammerhand. We can read a little about Hammerhand’s era in the appendices of The Return of the King and this story seeks to expand on those tidbits we get from the book.

This film will tie more closely into the The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies as they are all produced by New Line Cinema. The project is being fast tracked and is a priority for the studio. My guess is because of Amazon’s Middle Earth series is still in production and is not related to the New Line’s vision or the Third Age.

Amazon’s series is based in the Second Age, hundreds of years before this project and the previous six live action films.