February will be an excellent month for The Lord of the Rings fans. The 2024 anime movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will soon be available to stream on Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced its February 2025 programming slate for its Max streaming service. While not listed in the text, the video announcement for Max shows The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim at around 40 seconds. The anime movie set within the Peter Jackson films will be available to stream next month alongside other exciting premieres, like The White Lotus Season 3 and Waitress: The Musical.

Since the arrival of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim to Max was only mentioned in the video announcement, there is currently no specific date for when it will be available to stream. However, with its upcoming inclusion, Max will soon be the home to every Lord of the Rings movie. This, of course, includes the original live-action trilogy by Jackson and the prequel trilogy that revolved around The Hobbit. It also includes the 1978 animated Lord of the Rings movie by indie animator and filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Excluded is the live-action The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series produced by Amazon for its Prime Video service.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated movie connected to the live-action movies by Warner Bros. and Jackson. It’s loosely based on supplementary material by series author J. R. R. Tolkien regarding the last stand of Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), the ninth King of Rohan, and his daughter. While nameless in the original text, Helm’s daughter is named Héra in the anime movie and is voiced by actor Gaia Wise. Kenji Kamiyama (Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045) directed the divisive anime movie that earned a 48% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes and opened up to a disappointing sum of $4.6 million from its opening weekend in theaters on Dec. 3, 2024. The film’s theatrical run was cut short for an almost immediate digital release.

Despite the film’s flaws, CBR’s review of The War of the Rohirrim praised the anime for introducing a new perspective on Tolkien’s fantasy world: "The formula is there for future expansions of the Tolkienverse that tell more stories which deviate from the norm, and future adventures that will stand the test of time as well as Peter Jackson's trilogy."

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be available to stream on Max in February. The film’s official description reads: "Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg— a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction."

Source: Warner Bros. Discovery