Academy Award-winning screenwriter Philippa Boyens (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) has been in the Tolkien universe pretty much her entire life, and she continues to see great stories that can be told.
Now, she is trying to capture that universe in anime form for the new film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Here, in an interview with The Contending, she details how this film, while being of the world, has a much different focus than what we have seen before by focusing on the world of men. That includes being able to capture the complexities we’re seeing in our own times as well as universal truths about humanity and its chances for redemption.
The Contending: I heard you wanted to focus on Rohan specifically for this film due to its culture being suited for animation. How did you come to that conclusion?
Philippa Boyens: Honestly, it was specifically for anime, in terms of animation. We were looking for a film that would fit the form of anime and work as a standalone story with fresh characters and not characters we knew from the live action films. It’s not that I’m against the idea of animating the characters from those films but for our first foray into animation we thought we should do something fresh. We specifically wanted to do a story that was not about the dark lords or rings of power (though it is on the periphery, ever present). Tolkien’s breath of imagination and his genius as a storyteller means there are so many different myths and tales within this world. This story felt right for the form of anime.
The Contending: The idea of avoiding the ring and the traditional lore that people know from this world seems like a good way to make a fresh story. But did it make it harder to craft a story or was it freeing?
Philippa Boyens: I definitely think it was freeing. It sharpened the focus for sure. We talk about the world of men through the characters like Aragorn, Boromir, and Denethor. But the stories they are in are not about the world of men, they are about the world of Middle-earth as a whole. This story is about the world of men and not just that but about people that are tearing themselves apart. Which has resonance today, with a lot of internal conflict between people, with us uncertain how do we see our way through this?
The Contending: It is interesting that you bring that up because that goes straight into my next question. You have said that the character of Wulf really represented a lot of the crisis we are finding today. What did you find in his character specifically that connected with the world today?
Philippa Boyens: It is the choices he makes and the way he positions himself in the world and what is important to him. Where he starts is not necessarily from a bad place. I think he is a young man with a very domineering father and, from the first time we see him, he is deferential around his father. He has different ambitions than his father but he wants his father to be proud of him, which is probably why he’s forced into the situation he’s in. But I think he is also genuinely in love with the character of Héra. So her rejection of him and her father’s rejection of them really bites hard and creates a second wound in him. So there is a level where he is not without cause, the way in which he is treated and the fact that his father is killed and, in his eyes, murdered.
So we have civil war and a challenge for the throne but it is not without cause. You can see a way where he would have defeated King Helm and brought the people together and ruled legitimately and justly and showing mercy, where his life and this story could have been entirely different. But he doesn’t, and I think that goes back to the rejection and his inability to rise above it and see a bigger picture, but for him it is all very personal. Where are the great leaders who can put that aside and rule judiciously, and I think that’s a good question that this film asks. And where they are is with her! (laughter)
The Contending: So I was able to see about 18 minutes of the start of the film including Héra’s scene with him. She’s not really rejecting him as a person, it is simply that she does not wish to be tied down with any man. I found that very interesting and you talked about how he’s internalized it and not seeing her point of view. I’m wondering if you think that that’s a big part of him not being able to understand that?
Philippa Boyens: You can hear the paranoia in his voice when he asks, you would rather marry a Gondorian princeling? She is, like, no that is not what I am saying! He is not getting it. Like I said, it’s personal to him and he chooses to react to it so personally. It’s interesting you were the first person to see that take on it and ask about it. It is very seedful to the story.
The Contending: You have been in the Tolkien world for a very long time now. What has kept you coming back to this world?
Philippa Boyens: I love this world he created! At some point those books captured my imagination and informed a lot of my own imagination even when I’m working on other things. I first read them when I was 13 and they became my comfort read where I reread them every year, until we actually made the live action films. There’s a comfort and familiarity I have with this world and there’s a level where (it sounds weird to say) it is real. Like a history that is real and that is a testament to Professor Tolkien’s genius in crafting this mythology. I think there’s a humanity that underpins his storytelling. Which I think is why he’s so incredibly popular and so many people are drawn to his stories. It is a series about individuals but it’s also a story about what is the greater good and what is going to hold us together.
You could simplify it and say good versus evil but I think he always went beyond that and I think that was something informed by his faith. Nothing is wholly good or evil. In the end it’s about what you are holding on to and the choices that you make. His characters are always redeemable and there’s always an element of hope that that will happen. We have that in the character of Wulf that we hope he will get there even at the very end. (I can’t wait for you to see the end of the movie.) When he is on his knees you see this glimmer and he says, “From the moment I first met you I knew you would be my doom.” In that statement is the complexity of his love for her even in that moment of ultimate dominion.
The Contending: From the bit I saw, seeing that human complexity was an exciting prospect.
Philippa Boyens: That we can do that and have it hold up in this world where there is very little magic except on the periphery is very exciting. There is actually little fantasy beyond the creatures, this is going into the hardcore history of men.
The Contending: Final thoughts?
Philippa Boyens: There’s a part of me that thinks they’ll be hesitation from Tolkien fans because it’s an anime, especially from older Tolkien fans. I do not know about you but the feedback we’ve been getting, which has been very gratifying, is that people felt like they fell back into the world surprisingly easily. At some point it just slipped away that they were watching an anime film and just felt like they were back in Middle Earth. I just love that fans trust that about this film.
The Contending: I am an anime fan so that was easy for me.
Philippa Boyens: You’re our ideal audience!
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim opens in theaters nationwide this Friday.
