‘The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim’ Writer Philippa Boyens Reveals Anime Film Will Revive The Late Christopher Lee’s Saruman – But Not With AI: “Sir Christopher Would Have Wanted This”
June 7th, 2015 remains one of the saddest days in history for The Lord of the Rings fan base as that was the day when they was forced to say good-bye to the late Christopher Lee, whose performance as Saruman in Peter Jackson’s live-action film trilogy was so iconic that it’s constantly cited to this day as one of the ‘best villain portrayals in cinema history’.
However, despite his departure to the shores of Valinor and against all odds, the actor will apparently be making a posthumous return to the franchise in the upcoming anime film The Lord of the Rings:The War of the Rohirrim.
The late Lee’s return to the role of Man of Skill was confirmed by The War of the Rohirrim writer Philippa Boyens, who also provided her talents on all six movies in the original LOTR and The Hobbit trilogies, during a recent interview given to TheOneRing.net.
Speaking to an outlet reporter known only by her handle of ‘greendragon’ while on the floor at the 2024 New York, Boyens explained that the idea to include Lee in The War of the Rohirrim was sparked by “a really beautiful letter from Chris” that he wrote to New Line Cinemas during the filming of Jackson’s trilogy.
“It wasn’t actually at the end of any of the movies,” recalled the writer of Lee’s message. “It was out of the blue. He was in London, and he wanted to write us. I think he missed New Zealand a little bit. So I have this letter that is framed in my office, and it’s one of the few times I’ve ever done that.”
Continuing, Boyens noted, “When we reached out to Lady Lee, who is no longer with us – but is now with her beloved, I’d like to think – she said the thing that I think Peter [Jackson] felt in his heart, that Christopher would have wanted this.”
And while many a fan will no doubt find themselves concerned regarding the potential use of AI in reviving Lee, Boyens clarified that rather than technological mimicry, they instead put his lines together using past recordings of his voice made during the filming of the original trilogy.
“So we went into his recordings, I got to back into it all, and hear his voice not just doing the lines, but talking to us as we were recording them,” she said. “We based it on a line from The Hobbit [The Battle of the Five Armies], which is ‘Are you in need of assistance, my lady?’ [as uttered by Saruman to Galadriel upon discovering her under threat from the Nazgûl at Dol Guldur]. And we thought, ‘Okay, that’s a line. We can see how many takes he did of that. Can we use it? Can we find a new read on it and change it up a little bit?’ And our brilliant guys did that, but it is an authentic bit of Christopher Lee performance and it’s based on that line.”
In further addressing these concerns, Boyens admitted that The War of the Rohirrim team did consider hiring “a cast-alike, someone who can do the voice” to play the role of Saruman, they just couldn’t find anyone who was as good of a fit for the role as Lee himself.
“Now, I know the internet is gonna say, of course there is a million people who can do Chris Lee’s voice, but you know what! I don’t think so,” she said. “I am so glad we used his own voice and it was fantastic.”
Notably, Lee was a big fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, having even reportedly watched it on the night of his death. His devotion to the films, therefore, explains why Warner Bros. – and Boyens in particular, given her personal history with the franchise – would be willing to go so far as to bring the actor back nearly a decade after his death.
However, while some fans viewed Lee’s revival as a good step forward for the franchise, others disagreed with it wholly and completely.
As seen in multiple threads on Reddit, many fans compared the situation to that of Disney announcing that they would be using AI technology to keep the late James Earl Jones as the voice of Star Wars‘ Darth Vader after his recent passing.
However, as noted by one user, the difference in these cases is that unlike Lee, who did not foresee any future The Lord of the Rings projects based in Jackson’s cinematic universe at the time of his passing in 2015, “Jones worked gave the right to his voice to Disney/Lucasfilm and worked with an AI company to recreate his voice so that Vader could be his voice even after his death.”
The extent of Saruman’s involvement in the movie remains a mystery, although it will likely be limited to just a few lines as not only are Tolkien’s books scant on the details about the actual War of the Rohirrim, but they also aren’t clear about just what his role was during the conflict.
In fact, all we really know about the battle is that it was both fierce and part of the events that lead to the founding of Helm’s Deep, the mountain fortress in the Rohan Valley where Saruman would later battle against against the eponymous Riders of Rohan during the The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Set about 200 years before the events of the core The Lord of the Rings trilogy and directed by Blade Runner: Black Lotus co-director Kenji Kamiyaama, The War of the Rohirrim focuses on the story of Hera (Gaia Wise), the stubborn daughter of King Helm the Hammerhand of Rohan (Brian Cox), as she and her father work together to lead their peoples in standing up against the King Wulf of Dunlendings (Luke Pasqualino).
At present, the film is set to hit the battlefield on December 13th.
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