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Despite The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim taking place 183 years before Bilbo Baggins embarked on his grand quest far over the Misty Mountains, several recognizable characters appear in director Kenji Kamiyama's anime adventure. And thanks to the everlasting nature of many of Middle-earth's inhabitants, the various cameos make sense within the confines of Tolkien's text. Sort of...
Many of the movie's events happen between the lines of Tolkien's work as we're introduced to new characters who go on to meet others that there's no record of them ever meeting.
Article continues belowThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim cameos – who appears from Peter Jackson's movies?
Unlike Amazon's Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, Kamiyama's animated movie takes place in the same world as Peter Jackson's two trilogies. Indeed, Jackson and Fran Walsh, who co-wrote the films with Jackson, are executive producers on The War of the Rohirrim. Phillipa Boyens, also a writer on the Lord of the Rings, is a producer and has a "story by" credit. In fact, she was the person who decided that the newest instalment in the Middle-earth saga should be an adaptation of Helm Hammerhand's story. All that's to say is that we have a few Middle-earth alumni in Rohirrim.
First up and the most widely publicized: Miranda Otto returns as Éowyn, the Witch King-killing shield-maiden. Being a human, Éowyn hasn't been born yet and she instead acts as the movie's narrator, helping frame the story as a fable being passed down the generations.
Next, Christopher Lee's Saruman also makes an appearance towards the movie's end. Unlike Éowyn, Saruman does appear in person thanks to him being an immortal spirit/wizard/Istari who arrived in Middle-earth around 1000 years into the Third Age (though that's not the case in The Rings of Power). Saruman's presence is teased early on as we visit his eventual stronghold, Isengard, which has been taken over by the wild Dunlendings. Although Lee died in 2015, the filmmakers used an alternate line delivery from his time filming The Hobbit with the permission of his estate.
Now, The War of the Rohirrim ends with Héra, the daughter of Helm, riding off to see a certain wizard called Gandalf. He's interested in her encounter with those mysterious orcs outside of the Hornburg, the fortified stronghold that will later be known as Helm's Deep, named after Hammerhand himself. Those orcs were collecting rings presumably on behalf of Sauron, the Dark Lord, whose One Ring has been missing for a couple of thousand years. However, we know that the all-powerful ring is, at this moment, in the hands of the corrupted Store Hobbit once known as Sméagol, now Gollum.
Gandalf only gets a name-drop in Rohirrim. It should be noted that there's no record in Tolkien's text of the Grey wizard ever meeting Héra – and that's because Héra herself never appears in Tolkien's work, at least by name. The War of the Rohirrim is based on two pages of history found in Lord of the Rings' Appendix A, specifically the part laying out the history of The House of Eorl (Eorl the Young being the first King of Rohan). Helm Hammerhand makes a big impression, and his two sons, Háma and Haleth, are named, while his daughter remains nameless. This was the reason why Boyens wanted to tell Héra’s story; it was unwritten, giving Boyens and her writing team the space to shape a character within Tolkien’s world while sticking somewhat to book canon.
The final The War of the Rohirrim cameos are slightly more hidden. Were you listening closely? Because those two orcs that Gandalf has such an interest in are voiced by Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, who played Merry and Pippin in Jackson's movies. The pair were cast as the orcs because of their friendly rapport, with the filmmakers wanting the two creatures to seem like they've known each other for many years. Unfortunately, they don't appear beyond a single scene, making Monaghan and Boyd's return to Middle-earth relatively short.
Do The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim cameos work within Tolkien lore?
So, does Saruman and Gandalf's presence in this story make sense? Considering Saruman will eventually take over Isenguard, there's no question he would have at some stage introduced himself to the new King of Rohan, Fréaláf Hildeson, following his defeat of Wulf. Tolkien even specified in his histories of Middle-earth that Saruman took over Isenguard the exact year Helm Hammerhand froze to death in T.A. (Third Age) 2759.
The Gandalf name-drop also works within the confines of Tolkien's text, though not quite as neatly. First, it's worth noting that, at this point in Tolkien's story, Sauron is indeed searching for the One Ring, the Dark Lord having taken the form of a Necromancer haunting Dol Guldur, a stronghold in Murkwood later seen in Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy.
Sauron's search for the remaining Rings of Power eventually leads to him capturing the dwarf king Thrain II, who holds one of the seven Dwarf Rings. Gandalf arrives in Dol Goldur and confirms Sauron's presence in the year T.A. 2850 – almost 100 years after the death of Helm Hammerhand.
Before that, Gandalf was almost certainly worried about the One Ring potentially returning to Sauron. Indeed, he sat upon the White Council – consisting of himself, Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond, and Círdan – who were brought together in T.A. 2464 to keep a watchful eye on the evil growing in Middle-earth. However, it's not until T.A. 2851, a year after Gandalf's encounter with Sauron at Dol Goldur, that the White Council discuss the idea of the One Ring returning to the hands of its master. It's during this meeting that Saruman's desire to take the One Ring for himself is first hinted at as he overrules Gandalf's plea to attack Sauron at Dol Goldur.
But what does this mean for the War of the Rohirrim's ending? Well, Gandalf would clearly have been interested in any news concerning rings, especially if the forces of darkness were involved. Should news of Héra's encounter have reached his ears, he would have certainly wanted to meet her to discuss what she had seen.
However, with Héra having barely a fleshed-out story in Tolkien's text, there's nothing there to say that she ever met with Gandalf. Conversely, there's also nothing to say that she didn't meet with Gandalf. In other words, this could all fit inside Tolkien's words, even if the author had never contemplated having the daughter of Helm Hammerhand meet the Wise Wizard.
Something fun to note: the Long Winter seen in The War of the Rohirrim impacted many regions of Middle-earth, including The Shire. Although many Hobbits would die during a great famine that took hold that year, Gandalf would come to their aid. It was during this time that Gandalf became fond of Hobbits, which would one day lead to him asking Bilbo Baggins to join him on a quest to a certain dragon-infested Misty Mountain.
Does that Gandalf name-drop hint at a Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim sequel?
The movie's creative team have said nothing about a sequel to The War of the Rohirrim, and frankly going any further with Hera's interactions with Gandalf could easily tip this into a lore-breaking space. If her story continued, it would most likely revolve around an entirely new adventure.
That being said, Gandalf's search for the One Ring will be a central part of the upcoming live-action Lord of the Rings movie, The Hunt for Gollum, set to be directed by Andy Serkis. Though we know very little about the story, we can infer that it will see Gandalf and Aragorn track down Gollum to find out more about his time with the ring while also (unsuccessfully) trying to prevent the creature from spilling his guts to Sauron.
With The War of the Rohirrim concluding with a reference to Gandalf's hunt for the ring, it could be read as a subtle nod to the future spin-off. For even more franchise synergy, the wizard could eventually reference being previously helped by the daughter of Helm Hammerhand in The Hunt for Gollum. That, of course, is some way off, with the movie’s planned release date being 2026. At least that's not T.A. 2026…
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim arrives is out now in theaters worldwide. For more, check out our The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review, as well as how to watch The Lord of the Rings movies and shows in order.
