In June of 2015, Hollywood legend Sir Christopher Lee passed away. The actor/musician had many iconic roles, but playing Saruman in Sir Peter Jackson‘s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Hobbit” prequel films was one of his biggest. Lee’s voice will return as the White Wizard in the upcoming anime film “The Lord of The Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.”
And no, it is NOT with AI.
For the past nine years, “The Lord of the Rings” projects have sidestepped the character in one way or another. Warner Bros. Discovery’s new anime adaptation is directly tied with Jackson’s films, even using footage from “The Two Towers” live-action film in the first trailer. It is also canon to the storyline it’s focusing on for Saruman to at least make an appearance.
Lee in “The War of the Rohirrim“
“The Lord of The Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” will be produced by Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens. In a recent interview with Boyens, she explained how bringing back Lee’s voice was possible.
Between a letter she received from Lee before his passing, and talking with his wife Birgit Kroencke (who passed away in June of this year), they decided to use old recordings from the archives.
“Sir Christopher would have wanted this,” Boyens told TheOneRing. “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.”
After much doubt about how they could pull this off, the team found the perfect moment from Lee’s performances in “The Hobbit” franchise.
“We based it on a line from ‘The Hobbit,’ which is, ‘Are you in need of assistance my lady,’ or something — a version of that line. And we thought, okay, that’s a line we can see how many takes he did of that,” Boyens said. “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 Christoper Lee performance that it’s based on that line.”
The production hedged its bets, and tried to find a voice actor similar to Lee, just in case the use of old recordings didn’t work. Although Boyens is sure the internet could come up with millions of suggestions, none of them could match the original.
“The Lord of The Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” hits theaters December 13th. You can check out the trailer below:
