If that's your attitude, why not just call it "the spider"? It's less embarrassing.

https://ew.com/lord-rings-war-rohirrim-anime-meet-hero-villain-exclusive-8661309

"Meet the 'rebellious' heroine and 'fascinating' villain of Lord of the Rings anime prequel
Producer Philippa Boyens, director Kenji Kamiyama, and voice actress Gaia Wise preview "The War of the Rohirrim."

The very first film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings were animated, and now the next one will be as well. The recently announced live-action projects are still a long way off, but Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is coming this year. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus), the new anime film tells the story of Helm Hammerhand, the ancient king of Rohan, after whom the fortress of Helm’s Deep is named.

Of course, The War of the Rohirrim will look very different from Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings (released in 1978). This is anime, and producer Philippa Boyens (who, along with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, co-wrote the screenplays for Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings films) immediately saw the potential of putting this story in that format.

“When they suggested anime, that's when my brain really started whirring,” Boyens tells Entertainment Weekly. “Immediately, the idea of telling this story came to me. They had a number of different ones they were going to pitch me, but I was quite bossy, and I was like, ‘No, I know exactly what this needs.’”

She explains, “I immediately felt that it would work for anime because it's so character-based and also contained within its own world. It speaks to certain things that work really well with Japanese storytelling.”

https://i.imgur.com/mLGl6Fd.jpeg
Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise) in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim'.

The story of Helm Hammerhand (the king of Rohan voiced by Brian Cox in the film) is told briefly in J.R.R. Tolkien’s appendices to The Lord of the Rings, and the epic details excited Kamiyama to take on the challenge of adapting it into a feature-length film.

“This is the story of the most powerful king in Rohan's history, someone who defeated his enemies with his bare fists,” Kamiyama tells EW. “Why did his lineage have to end with him? I think there is a lesson in hubris there and also for a need for responsibility and awareness in their power. We live in an age where, all over the world, we face the reality of war again. What, then, is power? What is the responsibility of those who possess it? It is something they need to think about by thinking together with those who don’t.”

Boyens and screenwriter Phoebe Gittins expanded on Tolkien’s original story. In particular, they wanted to give a certain character her own name.

“In the appendices where the story is drawn from, we get these quite interestingly drawn male characters, and then we get this young female character who is never named — and that was really interesting to me,” Boyens says. “We know Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that happened. But myself, and especially screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her. We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”

In The War of the Rohirrim, Helm’s daughter is named Hèra, and she’s voiced by Gaia Wise. The actress says her character bears a stronger resemblance to the heroines of Hayao Miyazaki films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind than to classic Lord of the Rings heroines like Arwen and Eowyn.

“She would lay down her life for her people,” Wise says. “Comparing her to Arwen and Eowyn, they’re already fully formed women. What I loved about Hèra is she’s fierce, she’s complex, she’s rebellious.”

https://i.imgur.com/RIvyN6T.jpeg
Wulf (voiced by Luke Pasqualino) in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim'.

Hèra might have her match, though, in the film’s antagonist. Wulf, voiced by Luke Pasqualino, is leading the armies of Dunlendings against Helm’s kingdom.

“We have an exceptionally great antagonist in this story,” Boyens says. “He's been one of my favorite antagonists to have written across all of the films I've worked on.”

Wulf’s strength as a character, according to Boyens, is precisely the fact that he’s not an evil wizard or a dark lord like the more famous villains of The Lord of the Rings. He’s just human, and in some ways, that makes him even more dangerous.

“He speaks so directly to a lot of the crises that we're facing today,” Boyens says. “He’s a really fascinating character and exciting too. You don't know what he's going to do, and some of the choices that he makes are just breathtaking in a good way.”

Get ready to see how it all plays out when The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim hits theaters on Dec. 13."

https://i.imgur.com/8lBmZL4.jpeg

Yeah, nothing like taking the quintessential western fantasy and turning into another japanese animation. >vomits like the AI companions in The Thing game<

Boy that is a lot of words, I hope you get paid for them.

But yeah, this is probably going to blow up in their faces. Not for a lack of trying, but trying to sell animation as serious and for actual people instead of Capital Gamers, Otakus, and Manchildren is gonna be a tough cultural sale.

Also, feels [insert swear here] pointless to make a prequel to a very famous book series; we already know what's going to happen.

As expected, it looks like trash. It doesn't look, feel, or sound anything like LotR, just like some generic, random fantasy, and the anime style of animation fits this world about as well high heels would fit an oliphaunt. The supposed Rohirrim with those pokemon faces are just ridiculous. And of course the story is total ass-pull, with another "Tauriel" type fan-fiction level character, only this time elevated to main protagonist. They didn't even care enough about this world to give her a name that fits - Rohirrim have Anglo-Saxon names, and they called her after the greek goddess Hera. I guess they just thought "Tolkien like mythology and stuff, right? Let's call her Hera, that's from some old myth, right?"

It's just more butchering of great literature to drag out a franchise out of something that should never have been a "franchise" to begin with.

I can't help but notice that it took them nearly 30s to show them any animation, that screams confidence.

Also "the legendary" Kenji Kamiyama? He mostly made a bunch of Ghost in the Shell gaiden series. And Eden of the East.

But if I was picking a legendary director, I'd have to go with Hiroshi Saito (Moomins), Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam), and maybe Hideaki Anno? (Neon Genesis Evangelion.)

But here's the thing, dear reader. A director means practically nothing because animation is the union of many moving parts. Lupin III part 2 had 8 directors. Part III, had one; Yuzo Aoki.

None of that matters. The writers, animators, and the rest of the production staff had to harmonize to create a union of animation. And animation is but one part of compelling storytelling.

I can see the animation cels in Mobile Suit Gundam, but that doesn't detract from the story they're telling. (Practically, I think it adds to the charm.)

Funny how they start the trailer with footage from the live action trilogy. "You liked that thing we made a long time ago, didn't you? Please give us money again."

Personally I don't mind the style of animation but it looks a bit stiff. Rather like a low budget TV show than a theatrical release. And yes, it appears alarmingly girlbossy. That climbing scenes looks an awful lot like that in Rings of Power. But at least I didn't spot any black or asian Rohirim to ruin my immersion so maybe there is hope...

I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of telling a Western story in anime style, but I have to say the design of the female character looks so out of place, not only because it's LOTR, but because she seems to be the only one with these big wide anime eyes, while they went for a somewhat more serious and realistic look with everyone else. I guess women still are a different species in Middle Earth? ;P

Then again, it kind of fits with the inconsistent design of the dwarves in The Hobbit trilogy, so ...

Sunrise Studios (Bandai) would have done Lord of the Rings justice. But half of the characters would probably die because that's how Sunrise likes to do its stories (Armored Troopers Votoms, Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Space Runaway Ideon, Fang of the Sun Dougram, Mobile Suit GUNDAM F91 etc).

And kids would be involved in a big way.

It looks a lot like most Japanese anime styled Netflix series, although I enjoyed Castlevania quite a lot.

The trailer showing robotic animations at 3fps don't inspire a lot a confidence either.

Bleh. The more I hear about War of the Rohirrim, the less interested I am.
It should 100% be the default expectation until proven otherwise these days. Perfectly described by Arch in this video:
https://youtu.be/YM7wyyukeAQ?si=uYWls6z-o6M-YvaL&amp;t=47

But hey, if the expectation comes true, at least there will be hilarious reviews out there to watch. And if it turns out to actually be decent (despite the trailer drastically lowering the chances of that), there there will be something watchable among the sewage. A win-win scenario.

Always look at the bright side of life....

I'd rather watch this than whatever Amazon is about to shit out (and onto Tolkien's grave) next.

Didn't the trailer for The Marvels do the exact same thing? It worked great for them :D

Why? It looks like they took pretty much the exact same approach as Rings of Power, with the same inevitable result.