MovieChat Forums > The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022) Discussion > The series is casting black Hobbits 😂

The series is casting black Hobbits 😂

posted 3 years ago by kukuxu (5409)
20 replies | jump to latest

It seems that diversity quotas reached the Shire, where there will be more focus in diversity and female empowerment.
https://screenrant.com/lord-rings-show-diverse-hobbits-not-white/

So we finally have info about the part of the plot concerning Hobbits: evil white male Hobbits will collaborate with the Evil Forces of Morgoth. Fortunately, there will be some badass female Hobbits, helped by charming and courageous black Hobbits who will kick white Hobbit asses to save the day. Add a few more white male Hobbits portrayed as retarded punchbags to have some laughs and you have the new woke masterpiece that will outshine Peter Jackson's trilogy!

Tolkien would be so proud! 🤣

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 3 years ago

If they’re having Maori Hobbits, I demand to see Dwarven Eskimos!

[–] joej2923 (3145) 3 years ago

I think diverse casting could work as long as the skin color is not part of the plot. I'll just be pissed if Lenny delivers a speech about his troubles getting elected to the council due to the color of his skin or the lack of economic opportunities for dark-skinned hobbits. I enjoyed the Shannara show and they cast actors of all races.

Denzel Washington could do a good job playing Gandalf or Aragorn. I'm not sold on Lenny Henry as an actor but I only remember him as the obnoxious chef on Chef. Casting good actors will make their race irrelevant.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

That's not possible anymore.

Don't get me wrong. Much Ado About Nothing (1993) is one of my top comedies and a must-see once in a while. DW played wonderfully Fernando de Aragon (do not mistake Aragon, the Kingdom, for Aragorn 😃). Things were simpler then, though. It didn't feel political at the time. It was just an actor representing a character, and DW did a perfect job.

Nowadays, race is the key element that defines everything. Well, that and gender. Everything else is more or less secondary. You can even guess the role of a character in a movie/series based in the race and gender of the actor. Nowadays, race is political, or better say, religious, it has gone way beyond political. A few days ago, a prestigious composer was fired from the University of Michigan because he dared to show a clip of Othello (1965) where Lawrence Olivier, white, played the role of Othello, black. The teacher showed the clip to study the differences between Shakespeare's original play and Verdi's Opera adaptation. That cost him his job. You already have the incident in the wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Sheng#Blackface_controversy_(2021)

[–] joej2923 (3145) 3 years ago

I still have hope for a colorblind show but you may be right. This is LOTR so they shouldn't risk alienating long-term fans of the lore by creating some woke gender/race issues. I might even cancel my Amazon prime subscription if they really get creative.

I read about the professor who was fired for showing blackface. The guy is from China so he is probably totally unaware of all the controversies about blackface. Laurence Olivier was even playing elderly Jews towards the end of his career. Olivier should have just gotten a deep tan and greased his hair to pass as a North African but that also might have been offensive.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10074869/Professor-composer-removed-teaching-Michigan-University-showing-1965-film-Othello.html *** DM article about the UM professor ***

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

I think the main problem are the implicit intended meanings.

For example, when I watch Much Ado About Nothing, I don't get any implicit message suggesting Fernando de Aragon was, or should have been black, or any other political implicit message. It just feels like a play, and DW is just an actor. And his delivery is actually one of my favorites parts of the movie. You see actors representing characters without further implications.

However, what we have here is the usual modern woke agenda. It's not that they cast a black actor because he nails the role, without any further implication. On the contrary, race has a political/religious meaning here, to the point we'll see a "diverse" Shire where white male Hobbits will be mostly violent/stupid oppressing poor black Hobbits and female Hobbits.

It's like modern Hollywood has only ONE story, and tells that ONE story in every movie again and again and again. I was making a comment a few days ago about how you can see that clearly in the horror genre. 90% of modern horror movies follow the exact same template: evil violent and stupid white male tries to abuse/kill a female, who is helped by a black character and by another female. Rinse and repeat.

[–] JoeBlow88 (574) 3 years ago

These great comments are why i joined this message board...

[–] blue1981 (8178) 3 years ago

This basically confirms what was already rumored that the series will be a steaming pile of dog shit and all LOTR and Tolkien fans should ignore its existence.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

A lot of the legends from The Hobbit originated from African folklore. They wrote tales of hobbits and elves and dwarves many thousands of years before Tolkien.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

A lot of the legends from The Hobbit originated from African folklore.

😂😂😂😂😂
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They wrote tales of hobbits and elves and dwarves many thousands of years before Tolkien.

Ahem... again
😂😂😂😂😂

What you probably mean is that different folklores have equivalent figures like, for example, people living in the sea, and they have stories about them. Since there's no word that names a foreign specific lore, sometimes you use a local lore word and sometimes you use the foreign term. You can use the word 'mermaid' to name some foreign lore about people living in the sea or 'elve' to name some foreign lore about magic people living in the forest, even though they can be very different from western north-European mermaids or elves. Another example, sometimes you use the term 'jiangshi', and sometimes you can use the term 'Asian vampire'. That doesn't mean that European vampires are based on Jiangshi or vice versa. It just happens that both are (different) lore about people who came back from the dead and feed on living.

[–] Gd5150 (11965) 3 years ago

Does that mean they’re going to have straight hobbits now too?

[–] elmacho (1027) 3 years ago

didn't read the books (too busy having sex), but did some research. It appears that Tolkein described the Harfoots, the majority of Hobbits, as having "browner" skin and used the term "nut-brown" skin.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 3 years ago

I haven't found any source that references the "nut-brown skin" term. As Winston Churchill famously said: "be careful with quotes in internet".

The 'browner' term is correct. And it means just that: more brown than the other two hobbit breeds. That doesn't mean 'nut-brown' neither 'black'.

[–] LoveCatsHateDogs (2001) 3 years ago

Did he mention afros?

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Honestly, Tolkien described Hobbits as having curly hair and skin that varied from fair to brown, so I don't see a problem here.

I actually had a minor problem with the LOTR movies, which I love, because they had all these blond hobbits, and their hair was wavy rather than curly. A minor error, but an error.b

[–] RoloTony (1338) 3 years ago

They will have giant hairy dicks from what I've read.

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 3 years ago

I am assuming that the black hobbits will be citizens of an integrated Shire. This begs the question of how they came to be, considering that Hobbits are known to be very timid, stay-at-home types who rarely if ever travel very far from their homes. Bilbo and Frodo were considered extremely unusual and strange for their travels.

So how did black Hobbits ever come to the Shire if Hobbits, like Medieval Peasants, normally live their entire lives within ten miles of their birthplace? It's nonsensical that two different races of Hobbits would arise in the same town.

I could buy it if the series showed some black Hobbit culture situated in Far Harad or something, but an integrated black/white Shire, in a Northern European-inspired setting will only look like cheezy and obviously forced Wokeism.