The Rohirrim War features cameos from Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan

You won’t pass… unless you’ve seen “The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim,” of course. This article contains big spoilers.

The world of Middle Earth is expanding. “Rings of Power” gave us one of the legendarium’s greatest tragedies with the fall of Celebrimbor and the creation of the Nine Rings of Power, and there’s also the upcoming “Hunt for Gollum” movie waiting to fill in unnecessary gaps in the story. .

This is what makes “The War of the Rohirrim” so exciting. This is the first animated Middle-earth project since Rankin/Bass’ “The Return of the King” from 1980. The film is also technically a prequel, like “Rings of Power,” but instead of serving as an explanation for a major event , full of cameos and references, is an independent film about a relatively important but not monumental chapter in Rohan’s history. In fact, the biggest question the film answers is simply “Why do people call Hornburg ‘Helm’s Deep’?” and not much more. Sure, it’s a question that’s being answered, but it feels different than, say, “Rings of Power’s” obsession with spending too much time making the audience guess how Gandalf got his name.

That’s what makes “The Rohirrim War” special: that even if you have little knowledge of Peter Jackson’s trilogies, you can enjoy it as an animated fantasy epic about a princess who accepts her role as warrior and leader in the midst of a war with the hill tribes. The movie has everything you’d expect from a “Lord of the Rings” movie: fantastical creatures, epic speeches, last-minute ex machina cavalry arriving at dusk to save the day, long-lasting sieges with incredible action and, yes, even rings. .

While incessant references to lines of dialogue from Peter Jackson’s trilogy weigh on the film, “War of the Rohirrim” doesn’t really feature cameos or guest appearances (aside from a single appearance by Christopher Lee’s Saruman that actually makes sense within context). of the movie). Except there are two cameos from beloved hobbit actors that you might have missed if you were too preoccupied thinking about the second breakfast.

That’s right, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan have amazing roles in the movie that, if you blink, you’ll miss them!

Boyd and Monaghan have been working a lot together since the release of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy: making a very fun podcast, attending conventions together and hosting an upcoming travel show.

The cameos occur during the second half of the film as the people of Rohan take refuge in Hornburg, when Héra encounters two orcs, Shank (Boyd) and Wrot (Monaghan), in the snow looting rings of corpses. Turns out Treebeard was right and they were always little orcs.

This is the kind of silly but cool Easter egg that’s possible in animation. Instead of, say, bringing Legolas back for no reason in “The Hobbit,” this cameo pays homage to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy by bringing back two beloved actors who have continued to portray that cast during the last two decades. Also, instead of forcing them to reprise their roles even though it doesn’t make sense, or even having them play other roles with a lot of makeup that would break immersion and be distracting, having them only voice two small roles goes unnoticed. To the layman, these orcs are just two more characters played by actors that not everyone will recognize.

Now, having two little orcs show up in “The Rohirrim War” is all well and good, but what they’re doing near Hornburg is fascinating and also incredibly fun. You see, Wrot is seen picking up rings from dead hill tribesmen and dropping them into a bag that is already full of them. “What does Mordor want with the rings?” Wrot asks.

This has absolutely hilarious implications. At this time, about 200 years before the War of the Ring, Gollum has had the ring for centuries. Meanwhile, Sauron has spent the last thousand years strengthening his forces as the Necromancer of Dol Guldur. The only thing he’s missing is his ring, so of course he would send his forces to look for it.

Except it’s one thing to send your armies and The Nine to search for a Hobbit, killing everything they find, and another entirely to send random orcs to scatter across Middle-earth with only the order to collect as many gold rings as you can. possible. possibly they can. It’s highly unlikely that they have any description of what the One Ring looks like, because Sauron wouldn’t want an orc to know what they have and put it on. So, orcs simply collect every piece of jewelry they find and put it in bags, regardless of quality, material, or style.

How many hundreds of thousands of orcs are there everywhere, stealing random rings from an honest innkeeper in Bree, a little lord of Eregion, or maybe even some random child with a fake ring made from a piece of rope? There must be a complete shortage of rings throughout Middle Earth and people randomly discover that their jewelry collections have been inexplicably stolen and no one has any idea why.

And then what happens to all those rings? There must be millions upon millions of rings arriving on huge chariots into Mordor, with another legion of orcs (who, remember, are also people) who have been assigned solely the massive task of sorting each ring, separating them into categories (everyone knows it). mordor orcs are excellent at organization), and then test each ring to find the One before taking it to the Dark Lord.

Or, maybe (and this is much, much funnier), Sauron won’t let them try the rings, so he himself has to put each ring on his finger (if he has one) to see if it’s the right one. : every second of every day for decades and then centuries straight. It’s not easy being a former disciple of Aulë.