Lord of the Rings screenwriter Philippa Boyens has not only confirmed the late Christopher Lee's return as Saruman in War of the Rohirrim, but assured fans that his voice was pulled from authentic archival footage.
"I reached out to Gita, Lady Lee, and she said the thing that I think Peter (Jackson) felt in his heart. Christopher would've wanted this," Boyens told TheOneRing. "And so we went into his records and got to go back and hear his voice, not just doing the lines, but talking to us as well. We based it on a line from The Hobbit, which is, 'Are you in need of assistance, my lady?' [It was] a version of that line... Can we use it? Can we find a new read of it?"
