Christopher Lee, the late award-winning actor who starred in the live-action Lord of the Rings movies, will reprise his role of Saruman in the upcoming anime movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. The anime film is loosely based on a story by J. R. R. Tolkien and will be released by the end of 2024.

Philippa Boyens, writer and producer on The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, confirmed Lee’s surprising return in the upcoming anime movie during an interview with The One Ring YouTube channel at New York Comic Con 2024. As Boyens explained, the decision to use Lee’s archival recording from the live-action Lord of the Rings movies was decided after revisiting a complimentary letter he wrote before passing away in 2015. A conversation with Lee’s wife, Birgit Kroencke, who passed away in 2024, helped solidify the anime team’s decision to use his voice recordings for The War of the Rohirrim.

Lord of the Rings Star Christopher Lee Returns to Voice Saruman in War of the Rohirrim

“[Kroencke] said the thing that I think that Peter [Jackson] felt in his heart, which was that actually Sir Christopher would’ve wanted this,” Boyens said. “So we went into his records, I got to go back and hear his voice — not just doing the lines, but talking to us as we were recording him. We based it on a line from The Hobbit… and we thought, okay, that’s a 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? And our brilliant guys did that. But it is an authentic bit of Christoper Lee performance that it’s based on that line.”

The line in question comes from The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, where Saruman says, “Are you in need of assistance, my lady?” Boyens’ interview suggests that Lee’s line and possibly others were re-edited to fit the context of The War of the Rohirrim. However, there’s no indication that AI was used to manipulate Lee’s past audio for new soundbites. In addition to chastised art, animation and concept videos, AI usage has been criticized for taking pre-existing audio of late actors and creators to create soundalikes of them saying things they never said while alive.

The 2021 documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain was heavily criticized for using AI to have the late Bourdain recite letters he wrote in the film but never said aloud in real life. The controversial use of AI has now become more dicey following the passing of James Earl Jones, as the iconic Star Wars actor signed away his vocal rights to AI programming based on his performance as Darth Vader in 2022 before passing away in 2024.

LOTR: War of the Rohirrim Writer Is Glad They Didn’t Go With a Christopher Lee Replacement

In the YouTube interview, Boyens acknowledged the possibility of using a soundalike to replace Lee’s Lord of the Rings role and said the team did search for one as a backup plan. “To be honest, we didn’t know if we could find [that line],” Boyens said. “Just as a due diligence, we said, ‘Lets see if there’s a cast-alike as someone who could do the voice out there.’ Now I know the internet is going to say, of course, there’s a million people out there who could’ve done Christopher Lee’s voice, but you know what? I don’t think so. I’m so glad we used his own voice.”

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will open in North American theaters on Dec. 13, 2024. The anime movie and the upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum are part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to revitalize the legendary franchise by J. R. R. Tolkien with the help of Peter Jackson, the New Zealand filmmaker who brought them to life in the 2000s.