The cast of the new series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is making a strong statement after they received a lot of negative press from fans of the original books and film adaptations.
The television series which premiered on Amazon Prime Video is a diversion from the original version in that it features people of colour in the cast, specifically, the elves and dwarves are not all white. The brickbats about this became so bad that Amazon had to temporarily suspend user reviews due to people “review bombing” it.
Hollywood’s actors like Whoopi Goldberg and the original Lord of the Rings cast have also come forward to show their support for the new members of the series.
“Are you telling me Black people can’t be fake people too? I don’t know if there’s a hobbit club. I don’t know if there are going to be protests. But people, what is wrong with y’all?” said Goldberg.
She also went on to link this backlash to criticism of Halle Bailey being cast as Ariel the mermaid in the remake of The Little Mermaid.
“There are mermaids of every ilk. And you know why there can be? Because it’s the world that we would like to see better. We would like to see as many people represented in fantasy as exist,” she said.
The entire Rings of Power cast posted on Twitter on September 7 that it will stand up for its actors.
“We, the cast of Rings of Power, stand together in absolute solidarity and against the relentless racism, threats, harassment, and abuse some of our castmates of color are being subject to on a daily basis.”
The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power prequel had 25 million viewers tuning in, making it the biggest premiere in the history of the streaming service.
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