Here’s why there are orcs in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime prequel set 183 years before The Lord of the Rings, spends most of its time centered on the bloody war between Rohan’s king Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Succession‘s Brian Cox) and Dunlending lord Wulf (Medusa Deluxe‘s Luke Pasqualino). But for one brief moment, the film shifts from its solely human focus to a broader look at what’s going on in the rest of Middle-earth — specifically, Mordor.

Mordor’s influence creeps into The War of the Rohirrim during the film’s prolonged siege sequence, when the people of Rohan are trapped in the fortress of Hornburg. Helm’s daughter Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise) finds a secret passage leading into the mountains behind the stronghold, where she comes across two orcs robbing the corpses of dead soldiers. They pocket any rings they find, although they don’t seem to enjoy the grunt work.

“What does Mordor want with rings?” one grumbles.

While Héra and the orcs might not know the answer to that question, audience members certainly will. Sauron’s influence is beginning to seep back into Middle-earth, and he’s on the hunt for the one object that can restore his total power: the One Ring. The orcs’ presence in Rohan, so far from Mordor, is proof not only of his hunt, but also of how far his presence, subtle as it is, has already spread.

“You want to see how the world’s changing,” Arty Papageorgiou, who wrote The War of the Rohirrim with Phoebe Gittins, told Mashable of the orcs’ inclusion. “That darkness is starting to creep in from the sides, from the periphery. “

There is no mention of orcs in the short section of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Appendices on which The War of the Rohirrim is based. But for Gittins and Papageorgiou, the fact that their source material was one and a half pages long created opportunities to draw larger connections to the events of Lord of the Rings, the biggest, of course, being the War of the Ring. Thus, the inclusion of the orcs, and the hints at Sauron’s presence.

“They’re Easter eggs, but they’re purposeful.”

“They’re Easter eggs, but they’re purposeful,” Gittins told Mashable. “They have their place in the story.”

Papageorgiou added: “Most audience members know exactly what’s coming. It’s no secret. So how do we lean into it in a non-overbearing way?”

That darkness that Lord of the Rings fans have come to associate with Sauron and orcs manifests itself in The War of the Rohirrim in other ways, too. From the sacking and burning of Edoras to Wulf’s lack of honor in his final duel against Héra, it’s clear the Men of Middle-earth are on a slow but sure path to corruption. Even the white skull masks of Wulf’s men call to mind the non-human foes our heroes will face many years down the line.

Thanks to these moments, and the orc cameos, we get an idea of where Middle-earth stands nearly two hundred years before The Lord of the Rings, and how Sauron’s shadow is gradually moving across the land. The end result, viewers know, is all-out war, with a key battle being fought at none other than the Hornburg. That’s just one of several ways The War of the Rohirrim echoes the events of The Two Towers, emphasizing just how much history can influence and speak to the present (even in Middle-earth).

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is now in theaters.