Actor Christopher Lee died in 2015 at the age of 93, following an incredible career in the arts. Lee appeared in nearly 300 films, but around these parts he'll always be best known for his portrayal of Saruman, the duplicitous wizard from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. Lee infused Saruman with humanity as well as ire, making him a villain who was enjoyable to watch even as he worked tirelessly to undermine the heroes.
And it turns out, we haven't seen the last of Lee's Saruman quite yet. NME reports that this December, we'll hear the voice of Saruman again in the new Lord of the Rings animated movie, The War of the Rohirrim. This news comes from TheOneRing.net, who had the opportunity to speak with Philippa Boyens, a longtime collaborator of Jackson's who co-wrote both The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films and is back for War of the Rohirrim. They got into discussing Saruman's appearance in War of the Rohirrim, and how archival footage of Christopher Lee enabled the production to include a brief nod to the late actor and his famous character.
How is The War of the Rohirrim bringing back Christopher Lee?
Whenever an actor's likeness is being used in a film after their passing, at this point my gut reaction is to wonder if AI is involved, with all the moral frustrations that entails. But that wasn't the case for Lee's appearance in War of the Rohirrim, which sounds like a fairly brief cameo. Firstly, this is an animated film; the only bit of Lee that will actually appear here is his voice. And that voice wasn't computer generated at all. Instead, Boyens and her team referred to archival recordings from when Lee worked on The Hobbit films, piecing together one of his line readings for The War of the Rohirrim.
“We went into his , I got to go back and hear his voice, not just doing his lines, but talking to us as we were recording him,” Boyens said. “We based on a line from The Hobbit, which is ‘are you in need of assistance my lady?’, a version of that line. We can see how many takes he did of that, can we use it, can we find a new read on it, and change it up a little bit… but it is an authentic bit of Christopher Lee performance.”
Boyens also said that the production sought out permission from Lee's widow, Gitte Lee. Gitte Lee passed away this year, but before that she, Boyens and Jackson were able to have a conversation about including Christopher Lee's voice in the movie. "She said the thing that I think Peter felt in his heart, which is that...Christopher would have wanted this," Boyens recalled.
Why didn't The War of the Rohirrim use another actor for Saruman?
Boyens also answered a question I'm sure a lot of people have: why not just cast someone else to play Saruman? After all, there's no shortage of actors out there looking for work; some of them might have even been able to pull off a similar-sounding timbre to Lee. Boyens made a point of addressing this, calling attention to it even as the interviewer was preparing to move on to another question.
“Can I just tell you one other bit of trivia about that?" Boyens said. "To be honest, we didn't know if we could find . And so, just as a sort of due diligence, 'let's see if there's a cast-alike, someone who could do the voice there. Now I know the internet’s going to say of course there’s a million people who could have done Chris Lee’s voice...but you know what? I don’t think so. I’m so glad we used his own voice, and it's fantastic."
As a general rule of thumb, I don't love when movies bring back actors who are deceased for pretty much the exact reasons Boyens touched on. But in this instance, it sounds like this was driven by a desire to honor the actor in a really authentic and genuine way. Don't take my word for it, watch Boyens explain above; it seems pretty clear to me that this was a meaningful thing to put into the movie to honor Lee's impact on The Lord of the Rings film franchise and those who had a hand in making it.
We'll be able to hear Christopher Lee as Saruman one last time when The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim hits theaters on December 13.
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