The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will introduce a new female protagonist, and she may be the best possible feminist icon for the Lord of the Rings franchise. Tolkien’s books were woefully short on prominent female characters, with a select few including Éowyn from Rohan and the elf Galadriel. For this reason, recent screen adaptations have attempted to make some changes. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power leaned into Galadriel’s warrior status, but this has been, overall, controversial. However, War of the Rohirrim‘s Hèra may be a different story.

The upcoming anime movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be set about 200 years before the events of Frodo’s story. Early in the film’s production, it was said that it would follow the war between Rohan’s Helm Hammerhand and the Dunlendings. While this is still true, it has since been revealed that War of the Rohrrim will center more on Helm’s daughter, who was unnamed in Tolkien’s version of the story. While such changes or extensions of The Lord of the Rings canon are typically frowned upon, this may be an exception.

War Of The Rohirrim Will Follow Hèra & A Female Tribe Of Warriors

Helm Hammerhand’s Daughter Will Be A Major Focus Of The New Lord Of The Rings Movie

Twenty minutes of War of the Rohirrim was screened at an Annecy panel, and during this short preview, the film’s new protagonist was introduced. While the story will still follow Helm Hammerhand and his war against the Dunlendings (which is one of the more exciting stories involving Rohan from Tolkien’s legendarium), the film will more specifically center around Helm’s daughter, Hèra. This is an interesting change since, in canon, this fateful war began when Hammerhand refused to marry his daughter to a Dunledning lord, Wulf.

Helm’s daughter had little else to do with the story in Tolkien’s version of events, but War of the Rohirrim is making a change. The screening revealed that the newly dubbed Hèra would take on a warrior role, forced into a position of leadership following Hammerhand’s decisions. The character will call on an all-female tribe of fighters for help, transforming this Lord of the Rings tale into the sort of feminist story the franchise needs.

Rings Of Power’s Galadriel Has Been Controversial, But Hèra May Be Easier to Accept

Hèra Being An Original Imagining Of Hammerhand’s Daughter Will Make Changes Easier To Swallow

Hèra isn’t Hollywood’s first attempt at giving female characters a more prominent role in The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy made Arwen a much stronger feature of the story, making her a part of Frodo’s rescue when she didn’t even have lines in Tolkien’s books. Then, Prime Videos The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has made Galadrial far more warrior-like than she has typically been portrayed in the past. This has been a somewhat controversial change. While Tolkien once described Galadriel as “Amazonian” in the First Age, Amazon has been accused of taking this too far for pandering.

The expansion of Hèra’s character may be less upsetting to Tolkien enthusiasts since giving her a name and a warrior-like role doesn’t technically contradict anything the author wrote. Rather than explicitly changing a character, War of the Rohirrim pulls the curtain back a little further, allowing audiences to observe a part of the story that Tolkien might have overlooked. This shouldn’t be too hard to pull off, especially considering Éowyn’s role in The Lord of the Rings.

Hèra Is The Perfect Continuation Of Éowyn’s LOTR Story

Éowyn Telling Hèra’s Story Makes Perfect Sense For Her Lord Of The Rings Character

Perhaps the most significant reason Tolkien enthusiasts could accept the Hèra character is her connection to Lord of the Rings‘s Éowyn. The shieldmaiden of Rohan revealed herself to be a formidable warrior in Return of the King, proving herself by secretly riding into a doomed battle and defeating the dreaded Witch King of Angmar. Éowyn was the best-presented female character in Tolkien’s central Lord of the Rings story. As a distant descendent of Helm Hammerhand’s line, it makes sense that other female warriors would make up her ancestry.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has taken advantage of this, and Éowyn’s character is a promised feature of the upcoming film. Miranda Otto, who played the feminist icon in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, will even lend her voice to the character in the upcoming anime. It sounds as if Éowyn will be the film’s narrator, as the character presumably tells the tale of another great female warrior of Rohan. This creates an exciting level of cohesion between War of the Rohirrim and Lord of the Rings and should ultimately result in a far more effective feminist story than Rings of Power could muster.