High-powered former Lord of the Rings stars have leapt to the defence of the diverse cast of Amazon’s latest spin-off amid a widening backlash.
Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan united on social media on Wednesday (US time) to support the diverse casting in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The Rings of Power debuted on Amazon Prime last Friday, to a record audience of 25 million viewers.
But there has been a storm as racist fans take aim at the casting of actors of colour – including Ismael Cruz Cordova (as wood-elf Arondir), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (as Queen Regent Miriel) and Sophia Nomvete (Princess Disa – with some claiming the show is “unwatchable”. Others allege that having non-white actors in The Rings of Power runs contrary to JRR Tolkien’s original story.
On Wednesday, Elijah Wood, who was Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, hit back with a picture on Twitter. It showed him with Monaghan (who was Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck) and Boyd (Peregrin “Pippin” Took) wearing shirts featuring ears of Middle-earth creatures in varying skin tones.
“You are all welcome,” Wood’s caption reads.
Tweet from @elijahwood
His snap included a link to buy the T-shirts – an online shop that said it would donate half of the proceeds to “a charity that supports POC”.
Another LOTR star, Sean Astin, posted his own photo later in the day – wearing a hat with the same design.
The shirts also show a logo reading “you are all welcome here” in Sindarian Elvish.
They were reportedly created by Don Marshall – a TikTok user known as “obscure Lord of the Rings facts guy”. He apparently enlisted the help of a Tolkien expert to for the translation.
Owain Arthur, who plays a dwarf in The Rings of Power, replied to Wood with a simple “thank you lads”.
The cast of The Rings of Power also hit back on Thursday, releasing a statement objecting to the online abuse and criticism.
“We … stand together in absolute solidarity and against the relentless racism, threats, harassment, and abuse some of our castmates of colour are being subject to on a daily basis,” it reads.
“We refuse to ignore it or tolerate it. JRR Tolkien created a world which, by definition, is multicultural. A world in which free peoples from different races and cultures join together, in fellowship, to defeat the forces of evil. Rings of Power reflects that. Our world has never been all white, fantasy has never been all white. Middle-earth is not all white. BIPOC belong in Middle-earth and they are here to stay.”
The race uproar comes after a deliberate shift on diversity from The Rings of Power creators. Previously, Middle-earth has been the exclusive territory of Caucasians, as seen in Jackson’s original films.
Louis Markos, author of From A to Z to Middle-Earth with JRR Tolkien, told CNN casting coloured and black actors in The Rings of Power threatened story believability. He said Tolkien described elves, for example, as “fair-faced’’.
It also emerged this week that Amazon had delayed reviews of the now controversial show, partly due to the online backlash.
Lauren Rosewarne, an associate professor in the school of social and political sciences at the University of Melbourne, said this week the fuss wasn’t surprising.
‘‘It follows pretty much the same pattern that we’ve seen when any other casting decisions deviate from what has been the norm in the past,’’ she told The New Daily.
Tweet from @SeanAstin
Other prominent Hollywood figures have also weighed in, including Whoopi Goldberg.
“They don’t exist in the real world,” she said of the Tolkien fantasy series.
“You know that? There are no dragons. There are no hobbits. Are you telling me black people can’t be fake people too? Is that what you’re telling me? I don’t know if there’s like a hobbit club, I don’t know if there are gonna be protests, but people! What is wrong with y’all?”
Goldberg later added, “All of y’all who have problems because there are black hobbits … Get a job! Get a job! Go find yourself, because you are focused on the wrong stuff.”
Amazon Prime is dropping new episodes of The Rings of Power each Friday.
