The ‘The Lord of the Rings’ screenwriter Philippa Boyens recently confirmed Christopher Lee’s return as Saruman in ‘War of the Rohirrim’. She explained that the production team used authentic archival audio to recreate his voice for the role.
“I reached out to Gita, Lady Lee, and she said the thing that I think Peter [Jackson] felt in his heart. Christopher would’ve wanted this,” Boyens told TheOneRing.
“And so we went into his records and got to go back and hear his voice, not just doing the lines, but talking to us as well. We based it on a line from ‘The Hobbit,’ which is, ‘Are you in need of assistance, my lady?’ [it was] a version of that line… Can we use it? Can we find a new read of it?”
Lee played Saruman in both ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ trilogies. His final performance in the role was in ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’.
Saruman appeared in the franchise as one of the Istari wizards sent to Middle-earth against Sauron, who was corrupted by power and tried to take over it.
Now, set 183 years before the events of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ ‘War of the Rohirrim’ is bringing him back while exploring the reign of Helm Hammerhand and the origins of Helm’s Deep. Brian Cox will voice Helm in the film, which will arrive in theaters on December 13.
