For fans of Tolkien’s unexplored lore concerning the kingdoms of men in The Lord of the Rings, the new anime film The War of the Rohirrim is a special treat. Unlike the live-action prequel series The Rings of Power, this story is much smaller and set in one general place in Middle-earth: the land of Rohan, and some of the surrounding regions to which it connects. While full of several Easter eggs, including some appearances from ring-obsessed Orcs, and an eleventh-hour cameo from the late Christopher Lee as the wizard Saruman the White, the film is focused on its subject matter: how and why a war erupted between Rohan and the Dunlending men of the Westmarch.
If all of that sounds complicated and deep in the weeds of the appendices of Return of the King, don’t be intimidated. The film is refreshingly simple and as its stars, Gaia Wise and Laurence Ubong Williams, tell Inverse, designed to be enjoyed as a standalone adventure.
We caught up with these two cast members — Wise, who plays the central character Héra, and Williams, who plays her loyal cousin Fréaláf — to get a sense of what it was like to enter this era of Middle-earth history, how deep their fandom runs, and if after this film, they’re ready for more.
As the protagonist of the film, Wise was intrigued that although Héra isn’t specifically mentioned in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, her existence doesn’t contradict canon either. We know that King Helm had a daughter, and as the headstrong, and idealistic Héra, Wise felt it was important that she know what her character was capable of and how closely linked she was to the narrator, the future-tense Éowyn (Miranda Otto).
“I enjoyed figuring out how closely I wanted her to be linked with Éowyn,” Wise tells Inverse. “Obviously, they’re both shield-maidens, so it was really wonderful to find a throughline between the characters.”
Wise also notes that she had plenty of preparation for the role, having been a massive fan of the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy prior to landing the project. “I was very young when those films came out, so I came to them a bit younger, at sort of 12 or 13,” she says. “And I fell in love with them and I watched them two or three times a year. I made my friends watch them with me constantly. That was useful preparation!”
One of Héra’s allies in the film is her cousin Fréaláf, who, by the end of the movie, is granted a huge amount of authority over Rohan, which might seem unexpected, but makes perfect sense with the Tolkien timeline. “It's a new entry point, isn't it?” Laurence Ubong Williams says. “In terms of the timeline, it’s a nice place to be. Before the originals, but not too far back.”
Like Wise, Williams could easily pass for a live-action version of his character, and because both Fréaláf and Héra are poised for new adventures by the end of this movie, could a live-action sequel be in the cards? Might these two voice actors cross over into a live-action version of Middle-earth?
“We’ve got to play it cool,” Williams says with a laugh. “But we want to pitch that, for sure.”
“I’m on my hands and knees, begging,” Wise adds.
Whether or not a follow-up to The War of Rohirrim ever happens, right now, isn’t entirely the point. In terms of expanding the lore of Middle-earth, the film gives some new insight into Sauron’s plan for gathering rings, plus the exact way in which Saruman became the master of Isengard. But these canon details aren’t exactly the aim of the film. Instead, according to Wise, any Easter eggs that fans notice are essentially a bonus, to a much larger emotional experience.
“I think the people who know Lord of the Rings will be excited about the ancestry of the Rohirrim. And they'll love that,” Wise says. “But for everyone else, it's just a beautiful story of family, courage, loyalty, and loss.”
