Elijah Wood has reunited with members of The Lord of the Rings cast to smack down online racists. The fantasy movie star posted an image on Twitter of himself alongside Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd – who played Merry and Pippin, respectively – in t-shirts emblazoned in elvish script and different coloured elven ears.
For those wondering what the elvish says, Wood provided a translation. It seemingly reads “You Are All Welcome Here” (or at least that’s what Wood captioned the tweet).
You Are All Welcome Here @LOTRonPrime @DonMarshall72 #RingsOfPower https://t.co/8txOhlHa2f pic.twitter.com/nWytILT0zG
— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) September 7, 2022
The shirts seem to be a reaction to the racist backlash that the recent fantasy series The Rings of Power has experienced. Some online have claimed that the depiction of Black elves and hobbits is inaccurate to Tolkien’s world.
While this is patently absurd, it’s not stopped people from taking to social media to spew bile – not unlike the Mouth of Sauron – about the actors in the TV series. Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring problem in certain fandoms.
The Star Wars cast and those in House of the Dragon had to endure similar outbursts from trolls online, forcing the caucasian members of the cast to stand up for them. Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor expressed his disappointment in the fandom on social media.
“It seems that some of the fanbase has decided to attack Moses Ingram online and send her the most horrendous, racist [direct messages]. I heard some of them this morning and it just broke my heart,” McGregor said in a video. “Moses is a brilliant actor, she’s a brilliant woman, and she’s absolutely amazing in this series.”
While it’s great that actors like Wood, Monaghan, Boyd and McGregor are willing to stand up for their colleagues, are we not better than this? I thought we were.