'Lord of the Rings' TV series producers respond to backlash over diverse casting: 'Tolkien is for everyone'

• Amazon's new "Lord of The Rings" series features a diverse cast of actors.
• Producers of the show pushed back against criticism of the diversity of the cast.

The creative team behind Amazon's forthcoming "Lord of the Rings" TV series took part in a first-look profile with Vanity Fair, during which they responded to fans of Tolkien's book series who have criticized the show for its casting of diverse actors.

The new TV series — which is due to air on Amazon Prime Video in September — is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, many years before the events of Peter Jackson's acclaimed big-screen adaptations "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." The show will contain a number of new stories and characters. Among the new additions is an elf named Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova, who will be the first person of color to play a Tolkien elf onscreen.

The British actress Sophia Nomvete will also become the franchise's first female dwarf, as well as the first Black woman to play a "Lord of The Rings" dwarf when she suits up as Disa, a dwarven princess.

Lindsey Weber, an executive producer of the series, told Vanity Fair, which posted several first-look photos from the series on Instagram, that it was "only natural" for an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's work to "reflect what the world actually looks like."

"Tolkien is for everyone. His stories are about his fictional races doing their best work when they leave the isolation of their own cultures and come together," she said.

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Mariana Rios Maldonado, a J.R.R. Tolkien scholar, told Vanity Fair 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.

Amazon announced that production on a new "Lord of the Rings" television series had begun earlier this year. At the time, multiple outlets reported that the show, which was largely filmed in New Zealand like Peter Jackson's films, was the most expensive television production in history with an estimated budget of $465 million for its first season.

Elsewhere during Vanity Fair's profile, producers of the series said the show would not have levels of sex or violence that were seen on HBO's epic TV series "Game of Thrones.

Patrick McKay, who is a showrunner on the series, told Vanity Fair that the goal was "to make a show for everyone, for kids who are 11, 12, and 13, even though sometimes they might have to pull the blanket up over their eyes if it's a little too scary."