Andy Serkis, director and star of the upcoming film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, has come under fire for the movie's all-white cast. In an interview with the BBC, Serkis defended the casting by pointing to JRR Tolkien's source material, which he said was heavily influenced by Norse mythology.
Serkis's Defense and Criticism
Serkis argued that Tolkien's world, particularly the Shire, was envisioned as a very white, insular society. 'The Shire feels very, very much like a very, you know … They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of the Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in,' he said. He added that the film would not engage in 'politically correct just-casting-for-the-sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes' but would cast where relevant.
Critics, however, have dismissed this defense as unconvincing. Ben Child, writing for The Guardian, noted that Serkis's reliance on Tolkien ignores the fact that the author wrote in a less ethnically diverse Britain and could not have anticipated modern debates about representation. Child also pointed out that Peter Jackson's original Lord of the Rings trilogy took significant liberties with the source material, and Serkis could have simply cited continuity with those films.
Context of Adaptations
Child highlighted that Tolkien himself described Middle-earth's geography as aligning with Europe, with brown-skinned peoples in the south and diverse appearances in the east. However, he argued that rigid adherence to physical descriptions would require casting near-superhuman giants for Númenóreans, as Aragorn's ancestors are described as approaching seven feet tall.
The elves, too, are immortal beings with superhuman abilities, making questions about their racial appearance seem misplaced. Child cited the casting of Ismael Cruz Córdova as an elf in Amazon's The Rings of Power as an example of modern diversity that does not contradict the spirit of Tolkien's work.
Broader Industry Trends
Child contrasted Serkis's approach with that of Christopher Nolan's upcoming The Odyssey, which cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, despite the character being described as the most beautiful woman in the world. Nolan's film also features actors speaking modern English with American accents, deviating from the Greek setting. 'Every adaptation is an act of interpretation,' Child wrote, noting that directors routinely decide which elements to preserve, modernize, or ignore.
Ultimately, Child concluded that Serkis is entitled to make his casting choices, but claiming Tolkien made them for him is a stretch. The controversy reflects ongoing culture wars over representation in fantasy adaptations, where source material is often used as a shield for decisions that could be more transparently explained.
