The Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim producer Philippa Boyens has confirmed that they will be bringing back the late Christopher Lee, who died in 2015, to voice the wizard Saruman in the upcoming animated film.
Set nearly 200 years before the events of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Kenji Kamiyama directed animation will follow the story of Helm Hammerhand, a legendary King of Rohan (voiced by Succession's Brian Cox), who faces a conflict with Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), the leader of the Dunlendings.
Speaking with TheOneRing, Boyens explained how they were able to use Lee's voice, who portrayed Saruman in Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit films, after getting permission from his late wife Gitte.
Related: War of the Rohirrim timeline: How does it connect to the Lord of the Rings movies?
"When we reached out to Gitte, Lady Lee, who’s sadly no longer with us… she said the thing that I think Peter [Jackson] felt in his heart, which was that Sir Christopher would have wanted this," Boyens explained.
"And so we went into his records, I got to go back and hear his voice, not just doing the lines, but talking to us as we were recording them. And we based it on a line from The Hobbit, which is 'Are you in need of assistance, my lady?' A version of that line."
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She continued: "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 that it’s based on.
Related: First trailer for new Lord of the Rings movie with Brian Cox
"Now, I know the internet is going to say, of course, 'There’s a million people who could have done Chris Lee’s voice,' but, do you know what? I don’t think so. I’m so glad we used his own voice, and it’s fantastic," Boyens concluded.
It's unclear what role Saruman will play in the animation, but judging from Boyens' comments it seems likely that the White Wizard will be featured in a small cameo.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will release in cinemas on December 13, 2024.
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Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.
A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.
In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.
