Amazon has revealed new details about its upcoming Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, and you’ll be shocked to learn that fans (and trolls) have some strong opinions. As announced in a feature with Vanity Fair, the series will add new characters including a silvan elf named Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and a dwarven princess named Disa (Sophia Nomvete), along with other characters of color. “It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like,” executive producer Lindsey Weber told VF. But some replies to a tweet of that quote alongside Nomvete’s character portrait echo the kind of toxicity that emerged when The Hunger Games cast Amandla Stenberg as Rue, or when Star Wars added John Boyega as a Black stormstrooper. Some complained the character lacks a beard (she has visible sideburns) while others seemed to imply that Black people cannot live underground. As VF notes, the show has already received blowback for its diverse casting. Tolkien scholar Mariana Rios Maldonado told the magazine, “Obviously there was going to be push and backlash, but the question is from whom? Who are these people that feel so threatened or disgusted by the idea that an elf is Black or Latino or Asian?”
In a bold move, #TheRingsOfPower condenses Tolkien’s Middle-earth timeline and adds entirely new characters. Sophia Nomvete’s dwarven princess, Disa, and Ismael Cruz Córdova’s Silvan elf, Arondir, broaden the notion of who lives in Middle-earth.
