The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim previews 20 minutes of footage at the Annecy Animation Festival

Tolkien enthusiasts are sitting in abundance with multiple Lord of the Rings projects in the works. In addition to the Prime Video original series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continuing with season two, the dream team of Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis are collaborating for an all-new Gollum-centric film, The Hunt for Gollum, from Warner Bros. However, there is yet another project brewing at Warner Bros. that takes place in Middle-Earth. The animated feature Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim is an animated film with Phillipa Boyens on-board as a producer. It’s set for a December 13th, 2024 release. 

The Annecy Animation Festival is taking place this week, and Variety reports that 20 minutes from The War of Rohirrim has premiered at the event courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation and New Line Cinema. The director of the feature, Kenji Kamiyana, had professed that he was not only inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s source material with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books but also by the films of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who were confirmed as exec producers of the movie during the session.

The War of Rohirrim session at Annecy included director Kamiyana, along with Gollum himself — Andy Serkis. Serkis had boasted, “The fans are going to go nuts for this.” Kamiyana’s credits include the TV series Blade Runner: Black Lotus and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

The quick synopsis, according to Variety, reads, “The new story is set nearly 200 years before Blibo Baggins comes into contact with the ring of power and introduces key characters including Princess Héra of Rohan (Gaia Wise) and King Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox).”

Jackson explained recently why he decided to return to the franchise and, in particular, focus on Gollum for the upcoming spin-off. “The Gollum/Sméagol character has always fascinated me because Gollum reflects the worst of human nature, whilst his Sméagol side is, arguably, quite sympathetic,” Jackson said. “I think he connects with readers and film audiences alike, because there’s a little bit of both of them in all of us. We really want to explore his backstory and delve into those parts of his journey we didn’t have time to cover in the earlier films. It’s too soon to know who will cross his path, but suffice to say we will take our lead from Professor Tolkien.“