THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM’s Writers Talk Evolving Tolkien’s Rohan Lore and Creating Original THE LORD OF THE RINGS Characters

There’s a high level of expectation when it comes to release a new The Lord of the Rings movie. And so, selecting a pair of writers who would do Tolkien’s world justice was imperative. Luckily, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim‘s Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou were more than up to task, delivering a beautifully dense and gorgeously literary-feeling film. In celebration of the movie, Nerdist chatted with Gittins and Papageorgiou on what they took from Tolkien’s lore, what aspects of Rohan’s story they grew and evolved, and creating original The Lord of the Rings characters for the story of The War of the Rohirrm. Check out the full interview below.

What about this The Lord of the Rings story made you all feel like it was worthy of adaptation?

Phoebe Gittins: I mean, really, that was a Philippa Boyens call. I mean, she was the one who conceived the idea of using the Helm Hammerhand story. But when we approached the script, we could immediately see why it was a good idea.

Arty Papageorgiou: It’s a story that is about people tearing themselves apart, which I think is kind of unique. Usually, it’s sort of baddies versus goodies, and obviously, you’ve got a bit of that going on, but you do get the sense in this story that things could have been different.