Elijah Wood Weighs In On The Rings Of Power
Elijah Wood and his Lord of the Rings co-stars call for tolerance and inclusion in the fandom.
Elijah Wood and his fellow hobbits aren’t putting up with the racist backlash to the new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series on Amazon. The Frodo actor recently hit social media to post with Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd (Merry and Pippin) to support the diverse cast of the series. In the post, the three stars can be seen sporting t-shirts that say “You Are Welcome Here” in Elvish, with various ears of different Middle-earth races in a range of skin tones. As always, Frodo’s faithful companion Samwise Gamgee was at his side to support the message. Sean Astin joined Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd with a supportive social media post of his own, sporting a hat with the same imagery.
Elijah Wood and the rest of the hobbits included a link to buy the t-shirts and hats. According to the online shop, 50% of the proceeds from the sales go to a charity that supports POC. Although The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drew in 25 million viewers for its first two episodes and was received with critical praise, a vocally racist subsection of the fan community has pushed back at the casting of POC as fictional dwarves, elves, and hobbits. This wouldn’t be the first time this year that fantasy shows have faced racist backlash for their casting of fictional characters. The other major fantasy series House of the Dragon faced harsh fan reaction for some of its characters being Black. Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman on Netflix also faced a ton of pushback for casting Death as a Black woman, despite the fact that the character was made up by Gaiman himself and he had a say in the casting of the series.
Unfortunately, this likely won’t be the last racist attack that the actors on these shows face. Still, it’s good to see actors like Elijah Wood and creators like Neil Gaiman pushing back at the ridiculous feedback. Regardless, it seems like these fans make up a vocal minority of viewers, as all of these shows have enjoyed critical success and huge viewer numbers. House of the Dragon, The Sandman, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power all have been hugely popular thus far, and that doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
If you want to check out The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for yourself, you can catch new episodes on Amazon every Friday until October 14. The first two episodes are already available. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power tells stories set in the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. The Second Age occurs thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The series will follow some new and familiar faces as the face re-emerging evil in Middle Earth. The series stars Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Markella Kavenagh, Owain Arthur, Sophia Nomvete, Benjamin Walker, Charles Edwards, Nazanin Boniadi, Charlie Vickers, and more.
