By A.S.
The Lord of the Rings is one of the most significant works of the high fantasy genre in the canon of Western literature. Therefore it is no surprise that almost 15 years after the highly successful Peter Jackson´s movies, Amazon has announced in 2017 that they will be filming The Lord of the Rings series.
Unfortunately, like most of today´s entertainment industry, Amazon studios are a part of the politically correct hype that we have been witnessing in recent years. It seems that the most important goal for the contemporary producers and studios is not to create the best storyline or to bring to their audience the most interesting movie or series, but to inject as most diversity and LGBT agenda in movies and series as possible. Even when this is totally in contrast with the message of the actual book or story they are bringing to the screen.
We have seen countless movies and series where historical or mythical characters of European descend or from European folklore are portrayed by black or other non-western actors. There were many complaints during the years that Tolkien´s books and Jackson´s movies are “too white” and it seems that the time has come to modify his work and “update” it with the modern era of multiculturalism. This can be observed from the cast announcement that includes several actors of non-European descend. There is a possibility that they will play some of the villains who are both in the books and in the movies depicted as having Oriental or Dark features. But it is unlikely that, given the current trends, we will get another LOTR depiction of European looking cast, reflecting the characters in the books. Some of the Amazon non-white cast are Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxine Cunliffe, Thusitha Jayasundera, Alex Tarrant, Sara Zwangobani among others.
The races and peoples of Tolkien´s works all have their specific characteristics and live in mostly homogenous societies, so the introduction of multiculturalism to Middle Earth will be totally out of place. Of course, we have to wait and see if such fears from the possible diversification of another highly European-centered fantasy story, or stories, are grounded. But the creators of the show have also announced that the series will include “adult content”, which is also out of place for legends created by a staunch Catholic such as Tolkien, who himself did not see the need to include such details in his works.
The series will be placed in the Second Age of the Middle Earth, at the time when the Elves crafted the rings of power and when the people from the island of Numenor fought great wars with Sauron. It is filmed in New Zealand, like Jackson´s movies, and the release date remains unknown so far.