Is ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ Anime Canon?

The Lord of the Rings is getting an anime adaption with the upcoming film The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim. It is the second upcoming adaption of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work, with Amazon’s live-action TV series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power set to premiere on September 1, 2022. The fact that two adaptions are currently in the works is certainly exciting. After all, there haven’t been any Lord of the Rings film adaptions since Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, which concluded in 2014.

Now, The War of Rohirrim is doing something that hasn’t been done since the 1980s—an animated adaption of Tolkien’s work. While animation is where The Lord of the Rings film adaptions first started, it has been several decades since that medium has been used for Tolkien’s work. Meanwhile, The War of Rohirrim, like The Rings of Power, is going to be a prequel. However, while The Rings of Power is set thousands of years in the past, The War of Rohirrim takes place just over 100 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The War of Rohirrim follows the King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhead (Brian Cox), as his nation comes under attack by the Dunlendings. Hammerhead is a legendary king, though the leader of the Dunlendings, Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), seeks vengeance against him for killing his father. Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings‘ Miranda Otto is returning to voice Éowyn, who will serve as the narrator of the film. While it is exciting that The War of Rohirrim will adapt content never before adapted, it certainly raises some questions of how, or if, it ties into The Lord of the Rings.

Is The War of Rohirrim canon?

The short answer is, yes, The War of Rohirrim is canon to the live-action films directed by Jackson. While The War of Rohirrim does take place many years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, it is still following the official canon outlined in Tolkien’s book. The story of the war of Rohirrim and Hammerhead was first detailed by Tolkien in the appendices of The Return of the King. Tolkien described Hammerhead as a “grim man of great strength.” He relayed how Hammerhead was attacked by Freca of the Dunlendings, and how it sparked a war in Rohirrim that gravely devastated the nation. Helm’s Deep, a prominent location in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was even named after Hammerhead.

Additionally, Jason DeMarco, the producer of The War of Rohirrim officially confirmed that the film is canon. This confirmation was meant to clear up any confusion that the film might expand on a non-canon video game that had Hammerhead as a Nazgûl. Hence, fans can rest assured that The War of Rohirrim is canon and will be further expanding the Tolkienverse.

(featured image: Warner Bros.)