The Rings of Power is Falling Back on a Racist Genre Trope
The Prime Video prequel is a gold standard for inclusive fantasy TV, but colorblind casting isn’t enough to solve all its narrative problems.
The Rings of Power has always felt like the answer to the fantasy genre’s overwhelming whiteness. But to no one’s surprise, the choice to populate the Lord of the Rings prequel series with diverse faces was as controversial then as it is now. The Rings of Power met the same backlash that nearly capsized franchises like Star Wars and Game of Thrones. They could have simply ignored it. Instead, the show’s cast and crew stood behind their actors of color instead of throwing them to the wolves.
“BIPOC belong in Middle-earth,” reads a 2022 statement from the Rings of Power cast, “and they are here to stay.”
That form of solidarity was rare, and it continues to set the bar high for contemporary fantasy. The Rings of Power’s first season carried that promise to fruition, reintroducing Middle-earth as a land where all peoples could join together in a battle between good and evil. Characters of color were supported by nuanced storytelling, enjoyed substantial arcs, and managed to avoid the tropes that have tripped up “colorblind” casts in other fantasy narratives.
After years of expecting more, it felt too good to be true. This was real progress, though there were still plenty of opportunities to make things even more inclusive. Many hoped that The Rings of Power would continue its streak — and hopefully go even further — in its second season. And while Season 2 does take that note to heart, it also finds itself regressing into the clichés that have doomed other, less inclusive stories in the past.
While The Rings of Power has created so many nuanced characters of color, the series still falls short.
The Rings of Power Season 2 is something of an improvement on its predecessor, though it’s not without its flaws. The series is still addled with pacing issues (some storylines are simply more interesting than others) and its disregard for Tolkien canon remains a major sticking point, but this season is also plagued by a slightly subtler problem, especially as it crosses into its latter half. With the Dark Lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers) slowly but surely gaining influence over Middle-earth, the stakes are naturally getting higher. And as the villain rises, heroes are bound to fall. Casualties are a given at this stage of the game... but there is a pattern emerging in which heroes are getting sacrificed.
This pattern may be the most clear in The Rings of Power’s two most recent episodes, “Eldest” and “Halls of Stone.” Each takes the series in even darker directions, with the former bringing some of Tolkien’s spookiest monsters, the Barrow-wights, into cinematic canon. Their introduction is like something out of a horror movie: a small company of Elven warriors are traveling through the woods at night, only to encounter the hungry spirits in a startling ambush. The wights manage to drag one of the Elves, Daemor (Oliver Alvin-Wilson), into their lair, killing him with a sickening crunch.
That Alvin-Wilson is Black — and Daemor is the only member of the party who dies in this fight with the wights — means Rings of Power is stumbling into a controversial horror cliché. Alone, this would be easy to overlook, but it’s not the episode’s only instance of violence against a Black character. When Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) are lost in the lands of Rhûn, they’re briefly the prisoners of the Stoors and their leader, the Gund (Tanya Moodie). Eventually, a group of nomads come hunting for the Harfoots. As a demonstration of their strength, they strike Gund across the face before she can even greet them. Again, this isn’t all that egregious on its own, but stacked up with other examples of violence in Season 2, it’s a disappointing trend at best.
The Rings of Power does well to introduce more characters of color to Middle-earth, but that progress feels hollow when they’re abused for shock value.
That trend finds an unsavory parallel in “Halls of Stone,” which goes deep into the political strife in the kingdom of Nûmenor. When the King’s Men raze a temple of the Faithful — in the middle of a funeral, by the way, which is almost comically vile — Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and one of his wards, Valandil (Alex Tarrant), end up in the custody of the King’s Guard. In a shocking twist, Valandil is killed by Kemen (Leon Wadham), the son of Chancellor Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle). His death is meant to feel like a gut punch, particularly for Elendil, who saw Valandil as a surrogate son. Again, though, as Tarrant is one of the few actors of color with a prominent role in the Nûmenor arc, his death feels like a step too far.
There’s no question that The Rings of Power values its cast of color, even in the face of so many harmful tropes. But as the series doubles down on a darker, more heightened season, it wouldn’t hurt to deploy these cast members with a bit more sensitivity. It’s not okay to use characters of color as cannon fodder, especially for the sole purpose of eliciting shock from their white allies. And it’s not enough to simply bring actors of color into the fold (though more studios and shows could stand against racist backlash once in a while).
Colorblind casting is, in most cases, better than nothing at all — but that inclusivity doesn’t amount to much if those characters are still abused by the narrative. BIPOC definitely still belong in Middle-earth, but The Rings of Power needs to think a bit harder about their role in this fantasy world.
