Sadly, Christopher Lee passed away in 2015, long before The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was conceived of and created. But despite this, we will see Christopher Lee return as Saruman in the upcoming The Lord of the Rings movie. No, The War of the Rohirrim will not be using A.I. to bring Christopher Lee back for one more turn as the (at the time) white wizard. Instead, the creators of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim dove back into the archives of Christopher Lee’s ADR recordings from previous The Lord of the Rings movies, including The Hobbit trilogy. With his family’s blessing, the long-time Tolkien fan’s voice will ring out once more in a The Lord of the Rings movie. At Nerdist, we were honored to chat with Philippa Boyens, a long-time part of The Lord of the Rings cinematic world and a producer on The War of the Rohirrim, about Christopher Lee’s return as Saruman in the film.
Boyens confirmed that the Saruman line we hear in The War of the Rohirrim is an old take of Christopher Lee’s. And she further shared with us that the line spoken by Christopher Lee is actually a version of a line Saruman speaks to Galadriel in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, almost exactly 10 years ago today. The line was changed slightly in The War of the Rohirrim, but on the whole, Boyens and the team wanted to find a The Lord of the Rings line-reading by Christopher Lee that they could keep mostly whole, so they wouldn’t just be piece-mealing words together. In this way, some of the actor’s glorious choices and inflections could be kept intact.
With a clear amount of love and emotion, Boyens explained more about how Christopher Lee came to be in The War of the Rohirrim, “What we did was we based it on his original records from his ADR sessions. I got to go back and listen to Chris’s [Christopher Lee’s] voice.” She smiled and added, “We didn’t want to break the line up too much; we didn’t want to just take a ‘the’ from here and an ‘a’ from there. So we looked across all the films that he was involved in, and we found the line when Saruman says to Galadriel, “Are you in need of assistance, my lady?” And we thought, ‘Okay, that can be the basis of it.’ So, that was the basis of this line reading.”
But Saruman’s line does shift a little bit in The War of the Rohirrim. Boyens reveals that the line won’t simply a repeat of the one we already heard. Instead of a lady, Christopher Lee’s Saruman is now addressing a lord in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Great lovers of Tolkien might have some idea just who that lord might be… but we won’t spoil anything here. Boyens also revealed the full line we’ll hear from Christopher Lee as Saruman in The War of the Rohirrim. She shared, “We changed it slightly from ‘Can I be of assistance, my lady,’ to ‘If you should ever need assistance, my lord.'” There you have it. The line Christopher Lee will speak in his return to The Lord of the Rings world is, “If you should ever need assistance, my lord.” We have chills just thinking about it.
In an age of A.I. and digital likenesses, it’s lovely to see The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim honoring an icon of the franchise with such care. When respect and honor are prioritized, fans can truly enjoy one last beautiful moment with those who have passed on. We can’t wait to hear Christopher Lee as Saruman one more time as his iconic voice sounds out in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases in theaters on December 13.
