The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has now galloped into theaters. We at Nerdist loved this new The Lord of the Rings anime movie and its beautiful, skillfully-told tale. In celebration of the film’s release, Nerdist was able to sit down with director Kenji Kamiyama to ask a couple of questions about creating the movie. Kamiyama filled us in on what’s at the core of the tale, and the beautiful death scene that he feels really encapsulates his work on the movie. Take a look at what he had to say below.
Nerdist: What is truly at the heart of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim?
Kenji Kamiyama: So this film basically adapts the story of Helm Hammerhand, the famous king of Rohan and the legendary character that everybody loves, and you get a glimpse of him as a statue in The Two Towers. And so, basically, this film is about his tragic story and how there might be a redemption because of the character that I have created with Philippa Boyens named Héra. And it’s the hero’s journey of that character and the events of Tolkien’s original text that are basically seen through the eyes of the character Héra.
And what was your sort of favorite scene to bring to life in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim? The one moment that you feel is the pinnacle of the movie.
Kamiyama: So there’s a scene, I mean, this might be a little spoilery, so that the readers who read might want to skip this one if they haven’t watched The War of the Rohirrim yet, but there’s a character of Helm, obviously Helm Hammerhand from The Lord of the Rings, and then there’s the original character Héra.
Well, I mean, basically, we gave a name to a nameless daughter that was in the text, and Helm dies, as is in the text. So there’s a scene where they’re forced to say goodbye to each other. And that death scene was a very moving scene in The War of the Rohirrim, and it’s something original that we had to imagine for the movie. But that sequence, that whole scene, is something that really moved me as a storyteller as well. But at the same time, it’s a very significant scene of Héra’s turn as a character. And so that’s something that I would love for the audience to see.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is in theaters now.
