Scene from “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.”
The anime movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim—a prequel to Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy—arrives on streaming on Max this week.
Rated PG-13, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim stars the voices of Brian Cox, Gaia Wise and Luke Pasqualino and is directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Jackson is an executive producer on the film, which opened in theaters on Dec. 13, 2024.
The summary for The Lord of the Rings prequel reads, “Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand (Cox), the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf (Pasqualino), a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg—a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep.
“Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra (Wise), the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.”
According to TV Guide, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will debut on Max on Friday, Feb. 28. Viewers who want to stream The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim on Max must subscribe to the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming platform for access
Max has three streaming packages available. The platform’s ad-based package is $9.99 per month with ads and $16.99 per month without ads. Viewers can also get Max for $20.99 monthly without ads, which includes 4K Ultra HD programming.
For viewers who don’t have Max, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is also available for purchase or rent on digital streaming via premium video on demand.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’s’ Director Was Challenged By Connecting The Film To The Original Trilogy
In an interview with CNET in December, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim director Kenji Kamiyama discussed the challenge of finding the balance of setting the anime movie in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
One way the filmmaker said he found the balance was by using some of the same settings in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim that director Peter Jackson used in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
“Even though it’s the anime format, we needed to make it connect to Peter Jackson’s trilogy. That’s something I wanted all the fans to feel by watching this movie,” Kamiyama told CNET. “But having said that, because there is a commonality between our movie and The Two Towers live-action movie—some of the scenes are set in the same place even though the time is set 200 years before the trilogy—we could share the same artists from the live-action movie.
“That way, you can get the audience to feel these two universes are connected,” the filmmaker added. “That’s something I was initially focused on.”
According to The Numbers, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim made $9.1 million in North American theaters and nearly $11.3 million internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $20.4 million. The Numbers reported that the film had a production budget of $30 million before prints and advertising.
Rotten Tomatoes critics collectively gave The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim 48% “rotten” rating based on 143 reviews, while audiences gave the film an 82% “fresh” rating on the RT’s Popcornmeter based on 1,000-plus verified user ratings.
