Elijah Wood and the original “Lord of the Rings” cast silenced “Rings of Power” racial haters.

(CNN) The main cast of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, including Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and others, is naturally protective of the beloved fantasy franchise. However, they will not put up with prejudice or hostility directed at the newest Tolkien actors.

 

The casting of individuals of colour as Elves, Dwarves, and Harfoots, among other fictitious races, has drawn criticism from viewers who have bombarded many actors in Amazon’s upcoming series “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” (The majority of the characters were made up for the programme, including the Silvan elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and the dwarf Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete), who have both received hate mail.))

The original hobbit actors who played Frodo, Samwise, Merry, and Pippin, respectively, Wood, Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd, have now come out in favour of the cast members who have spoken out about the racist remarks they have received. All four performers showed up with outfits that said, in Elvish, “You all are welcome here,” as well as a variety of ears that represented various individuals with a range of skin tones. (Tolkien invented a number of Elvish dialects for his works.)

 

 

 

Don Marshall, a TikTok user with more than 590,000 followers who posts “obscure ‘LOTR’ facts,” created the shirts and hats. Marshall sought his fans for assistance in identifying people who wrote racist comments on his videos earlier this month, claiming that he had previously removed roughly 100 of them. Marshall expressed excitement for the new series and its new characters.

Cast members battle racist remarks
Some readers have claimed that J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy between World Wars I and II and in the years that followed, promoted racist notions in his books, particularly in how he depicted Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. Additionally, hardly any persons of colour appear in significant parts in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy.

People of colour also play significant roles in “The Rings of Power,” notably Nazanin Boniadi, who plays Bronwyn, Córdova, and Nomvete. The British-Iranian actress acknowledged that her character was inspired by the “tenacious, bold and stubborn women of (her) homeland.”

Although there have been allegations of the series being “review-bombed,” some fans have been incensed by the newly inclusive Middle-earth and have written abusive remarks to the actors (that is, flooding the internet with so many poor reviews that it misrepresents the true percentage of critics and viewers who liked it).

 

Despite being the first person of colour to play a Tolkien elf, Córdova, an Afro-Latino actor from Puerto Rico, said he has been subjected to “pure and brutal hate speech” on social media for the past two years.

For this precise reason, I pushed so hard for this part, he remarked. “I believed I could hold up the torch. Since I anticipated this, I made sure that my elf was the most wonderful and elven possible.”

Nomvete, who is also the first female dwarf in a film version of Tolkien’s writings, predicted a negative response to her casting as well. According to her interview with the Daily Beast, her main priority is to increase representation in the fantasy genre.

“There are people of colour in the globe. I think it is completely insane that we cannot survive in the world of fiction of all places.”
Other actors have stood up for one another: According to actor Morfydd Clark, who portrays the heroic elf Galadriel, assertions by fans that the show deviates from Tolkien’s original concepts are incorrect.

She declared, “I feel it’s crazy to think that anyone could know exactly what (Tolkien) would’ve wished or enjoyed.
Córdova expressed gratitude to Astin and Wood for helping the “Rings of Power” cast.
Córdova stated, “We belong in Middle-earth.