Former hobbits Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and more 'Lord of the Rings' stars come out to defend the diverse cast in 'The Rings of Power' after backlash

• Former "Lord of the Rings" stars wore merch supporting the diverse cast in "The Rings of Power."
• The merch features ears in varying skin tones accompanied by the message "you are all welcome here" written in Elvish.

Former "Lord of the Rings" actors are defending the diverse cast of the new Amazon series "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" after backlash surrounding some of the cast members has taken over the internet.

Elijah Wood, who starred as famed hobbit Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's early 2000s movie trilogy posted a picture to Twitter on Wednesday morning. The photo showed him standing alongside Dominic Monaghan — who played Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck — and Billy Boyd — who played Peregrin "Pippin" Took — wearing shirts featuring ears in varying skin tones.

"You Are All Welcome Here," the caption of the tweet read.

Sean Astin — who played Samwise Gamgee in the trilogy — chimed in later Wednesday, posting his own photo to Twitter sporting a hat with the same logo.

"You are all welcome here," Astin echoed, tagging his three former costars in the tweet.

The shirts, which read "you are all welcome here" in Sindarian Elvish, were created by Don Marshall — a popular TikTok creator who is known as "Obscure Lord of the Rings Facts Guy." Marshall enlisted the help of a Tolkien expert (@WizardWayKris) to translate the phrase into the story's fictional language.

"The Rings of Power" has been facing racist backlash since casting announcements were made in February, with some people objecting to the change in skin-color of characters described as white in Tolkien's books.

Mariana Rios Maldonado, a J.R.R. Tolkien scholar, told Vanity Fair at the time that she believes pushback from Tolkien fans was inevitable after the show's diverse cast was announced.

"Obviously there was going to be push and backlash, but the question is from whom? Who are these people that feel so threatened or disgusted by the idea that an elf is Black or Latino or Asian?" she said.

"The Rings of Power" is a separate prequel story from the "Lord of the Rings" movies, but the cast for both projects have been celebrating renewed interest in Tolkien's story online. Ismael Cruz Cordova, who plays an elf in the Amazon series, responded to Wood's tweet with: "Much love ✊"

Owain Arthur, who plays a dwarf in "The Rings of Power," also replied to Wood and said "thank you lads." Wood responded, calling him "middle earth family."

"The Rings of Power" will debut new episodes of its first season each Friday on Amazon Prime Video.