Quick Links Animated 'Game of Thrones' Spin-Offs Are on the Way Animation Is a Perfect Medium for 'Game of Thrones' Animation Is a Great Medium for Risk-Taking
The release of one of the most intriguing holiday films, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is finally here, acting as a new chapter in the Middle-Earth saga and the first to be fully animated. While set in the continuity of Peter Jackson's beloved trilogy and adapting material from the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkein's novels, the movie seems to take more inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki than Jackson or Tolkein. The protagonist, Héra, daughter of King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan, even looks a bit like the titular characters from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke.
All of this certainly looks to be the biggest departure for the Middle Earth universe in years, though it's too soon to say if the risk will pay off. While only having a modest budget of $30 million, the film may have an uphill battle to climb, as adult-animated films rarely perform well (at least at the box office), and it'll have to compete with Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the following weekend. Still, if it does perform, this may bode well for another popular fantasy franchise going forward.
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3.5 /5 The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Release Date December 13, 2024 Runtime 134 Minutes Cast Brian Cox , Miranda Otto , Gaia Wise , Luke Pasqualino , Laurence Ubong , Shaun Dooley Main Genre Fantasy
Animated 'Game of Thrones' Spin-Offs Are on the Way Close
Last year, George R.R. Martin wrote a blog post where he praised the Netflix series Blue Eye Samurai, using the opportunity to hint at yet another new project of his: "As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of A Song Of Ice & Fire. None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them."
Martin further elaborated that there are currently three of these spin-offs in the works, one of them being the previously-announced Nine Voyages, set to focus on the Sea Snakes. While that show was originally intended to be live-action, Martin admitted that budgetary requirements would've made a seafaring series unreasonably expensive, and he felt that animation was a better medium for it anyway.
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Nothing about the other two shows is known at this time, and as Martin said in his blog post, "Nothing is certain in Hollywood." However, he also credited Blue Eye Samurai as a major inspiration for these projects. It proved that an animated series could explore dark and mature themes, be targeted specifically at adults, and still be successful. It's not hard to imagine an animated Game of Thrones spin-off finding success.
While adult-oriented animation is still risky at the box office (as evidenced by the modest tracking for The War of the Rohirrim), the medium has been thriving in the streaming era. The past 10 years have seen massive acclaim and viewership for new shows like BoJack Horseman and Love, Death and Robots, alongside continued success for long-time staples like Family Guy and South Park. Adult-oriented anime like Demon Slayer and the aforementioned Blue Eye Samurai have proven even more viable, so it's easy to see an audience for an animated Game of Thrones series.
Animation Is a Perfect Medium for 'Game of Thrones' Close
Considering how much of a renaissance animation has been in the last several years, now is frankly the perfect time for the Game of Thrones team to try their hands at the medium. Most notably, recent theatrical releases like Sony's Spider-Verse films and Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron have gone a long way to prove that animated movies don't have to be exclusively for kids or dumb down their storytelling.
In fact, Hayao Miyazaki's fantasy epics prove that animation arguably might be the ideal medium for Game of Thrones. Consider Princess Mononoke -- that movie delicately explored an upended balance between man and nature in a mostly grounded setting where the fantastical elements lived on the fringes and topped it all off with stunningly staged action sequences. From the beginning, Game of Thrones made a name for itself off these same thematic and stylistic flourishes, and even when the show was at its peak, it lacked the poetic imagery that made Princess Mononoke so special.
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Game of Thrones was maybe one of the first scripted series to bring blockbuster-level production values to the small screen, and while it still looks impressive to this day, it sometimes admittedly felt the constraints of its medium. Some of the quickly-cut action sequences could make it difficult to understand what was happening and detracted from the visual scale the show was so good at achieving. In addition, the color grading regularly fell victim to an industry-wide trend, where post-production supervisors wash out the palettes as much as possible (and it only seems to get worse every year).
Compare this to the limitless visual imagination Miyazaki had on display in Princess Mononoke, where he was able to illustrate scale in a way that live-action could never allow. Throughout his career, he's regularly emphasized color while prioritizing stylization over realism, and his results are, without exception, breathtaking. And especially for the epic fantasy genre, this approach seems like a match made in heaven. Audiences wish to be transported to new worlds when the fantasy genre is at its best, and while live-action can and has pulled this off amazingly before (most notably The Lord of the Rings and Avatar), those results feel few and far between today.
Animation Is a Great Medium for Risk-Taking Close
Quite simply, the possibilities on display for an animated Game of Thrones spin-off feel limitless. Epic fantasy has almost always been a genre best suited for the medium of animation, and particularly if Martin and crew wish to explore the more fantastical corners of Westeros, they wouldn't have to deal with budgetary limitations or hold back their wildest ideas.
Of course, whether HBO decides to move forward with these spin-off series largely depends on how well The War of the Rohirrim performs. If that film proves successful and overcomes its currently mixed reviews, it will be a vindication for the growing audience for adult-animation, and it could pave the way for the most exciting risks Martin's franchise has seen in years. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim opens in theaters on Friday, December 13.