The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim Debuts A Dramatic First Trailer

2024 has already been a busy year for Middle-earth. The summer heralded the arrival of "The Rings of Power's" long-awaited Season 2, and earlier in the year, Warner Bros. announced that a Gollum movie was in production. The momentum will only pick up as the year goes on, as that studio's highly anticipated anime "The War of the Rohirrim" is scheduled to release in December — and now that movie officially has its first trailer, too.

On August 22, Warner Bros. unveiled a nearly two-and-a-half-minute trailer for the studio's upcoming anime. Until now, mainstream audiences have only been allowed to see a few still images, though that isn't to say that there was nothing ready to show. As far back as June of 2023, an audience at the Annecy International Film Festival in France was treated to unfinished footage that reportedly channeled the magic of Peter Jackson's original trilogy. A year later, a whopping 20 minutes of footage was shown at the same festival. That viewing also came with the fun announcement that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were attached as executive producers alongside Middle-earth veteran Philippa Boyens, who had already been announced as a producer.

As Gandalf would say, the board was clearly set, and now the pieces are moving. With the release of the trailer, the movie has emerged from behind closed doors, and we finally have some serious footage to drool over and get excited about as the December 13 release date rapidly approaches.

One element of the trailer that immediately catches the eye is the fact that Warner Bros. makes it abundantly clear that this is a direct prequel to Peter Jackson's iconic trilogy. Despite the media jump from live-action to anime, this movie is set in the same universe as Jackson's films. This is important, as other shows, like "The Rings of Power," are distinctly separate from that adaptation and cannot connect to it directly.

In contrast, the trailer for "The War of the Rohirrim" starts with footage from "The Two Towers," showing characters like Ian McKellen's Gandalf riding through Rohan, Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn making dramatic entrances, and Miranda Otto's Éowyn (a major star who reprises her role here) looking down at them. Only after this live-action introduction does the footage transition to the anime format.

There is also a "Peter Jackson Presents" card displayed while Howard Shore's famous soundtrack plays in the background, clearly sending the signal that this isn't a stand-alone flick. It's part and parcel of the Warner Bros. Middle-earth canon. From there, we get a string of sequences showing a very different side to Middle-earth politics. There is no Dark Lord bringing the Free Peoples together for a common cause. Instead, we see a world of Men where different families are vying for a single seat of power, "Game of Thrones" style.

The chief combatants in the dramatic political and military intrigue are the royal family of Rohan, led by Helm Hammerhand (his daughter, Héra, figures prominently, too), and a disgruntled group of Dunlendings (northwestern neighbors of Rohan), led by the bitter and vengeful Wulf. From palace intrigue to epic war footage that only Middle-earth can provide — including an elephant-like mumakil — this trailer is packed to the brim with nostalgia, even as it prepares to take Middle-earth audiences to a place they've never been before.