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The War of the Rohirrim panel was the place to be for J.R.R. Tolkien fans at New York Comic Con 2024. Lord of the Rings superfan Stephen Colbert hosted the panel, we got an exclusive look at as-of-yet unseen footage from the film, and there was plenty of behind-the-scenes insight from the cast and crew of the upcoming Middle-Earth anime. One of those creatives was Jason DeMarco -  veteran of Adult Swim, one of the film's producers, and something of an anime fan beyond War of the Rohirrim. At least, that's what seemed to be the case when he compared Brian Cox's character to an extremely popular anime character.

For those that don't know, Brian Cox is playing a king called Helm Hammerhand, a character that appears in The Lord of the Rings: Appendix A and Tolkien's Unfinished Tales. An ancient king of Rohan, Helm was a mighty, mighty warrior, but one that doesn't appear in the events that the The Lord of the Rings cover.

"This story takes place almost 200 years before the events of The Hobbit," DeMarco explained to a packed room at the Javits Center Main stage. "Where we are now is that Rohan has, for years, been dealing with the Dunlendings, who are the native people that were displaced by the Rohirrim. They have been making incursions into Rohan and trying to gain more territory."

"It's been a period of quiet," he continued, "because Helm Hammerhand has kind of settled everything. That's kind of how he got his reputation. And when we come into the story, there's a Dunlending Lord with Rohirric blood that fancies himself more than he is, who comes to Helm with a very impertinent marriage proposal. He wants to have his son Wulf marry Helm's daughter, which helm takes great offense to. and that leads to a chain of distastrous decisions which cause a war."

"The most distraous decision," quipped host Colbert, "being he decided to have a fistfight with a guy named Helm Hammerhand."

"Yeah, right," DeMarco responded. "He picks a fight with One Punch Man."

Now to be fair, Helm Hammerhand doesn't have quite the instant victory record that Saitama does. But as we got to see in some exclusive footage played for the panel, Helm's skills are so refined as to be compared to a wraith by both his enemies and his own people. In fact, Helm's greatness is remembered even into the events of The Lord of the Rings - the iconic setting of Helm's Deep is named after him. So the next time you read the books or rewatch The Two Towers, remember that the place Gimli and Legolas are slaying orcs at might as well be called One Punch Deep.

On second thought, I'm not crazy about that name.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim comes to select theaters December 13.

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