First trailer for Lord of the Rings anime movie The War of the Rohirrim promises a "groundbreaking journey back to Middle-earth"

The first trailer for new anime movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is here – and it looks just as epic as you imagined.

The teaser, which you can watch above, promises franchise fans "a groundbreaking journey back to Middle-earth", as it opens with clips from Peter Jackson's acclaimed movie trilogy before shifting to the animated story.

Set nearly 200 years before Frodo Baggins set out in search of the One Ring, The War of the Rohirrim is set to explore the blood-soaked era of the mighty King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand (Succession's Brian Cox), and the origins of the fortress at Helm's Deep. You know, the one featured heavily in 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers lengthy battle scene?

"We've come with an offer to strengthen Rohan," a character named Freca proposes to the sovereign, as another, Freca's son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), addresses Hammerhand's daughter Héra: "I will seek your hand in marriage."

"Our fathers speak as if I were not even in the room. I do not want to marry you," Héra (Gaia Wise) tells Wulf in a later scene. "You do not sneak an alliance, you sneak a throne," Hammerhand growls later on, before he kills Wulf's father in hand-to-hand combat.

"You will pay for this with your life," a teary-eyed Wulf vows, setting up the fantasy flicks's premise.

Directed by Ghost in the Shell's Kenji Kamiyama, the film also features the voice talents of Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, and Miranda Otto, who reprises her live-action role as Éowyn, with the character narrating the events of the film from the future.

Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh are credited as executive producers. "We did not want to make an animated version of a Peter Jackson film," fellow executive producer Jason DeMarco previously told Screendaily . "We wanted to make a Kenji Kamiyama animated feature film that lives within that world. That's a difficult task that requires a lot of delicate balancing between two types of filmmaking that haven't collided like this before."

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim releases theatrically on December 13. While we wait, check out the best anime you should be watching now and the latest from 2024's biggest new anime .

If live-action Lord of the Rings is more your thing, here's everything you need to know about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 .