“I fought so hard for this role for this very reason,” she said. “I felt like I could carry that torch. I made sure my elf was the most Elf, the most incredible, because I knew this was coming.” Nomvete, too, expected a backlash to her casting, especially as she is also the first female dwarf in a film adaptation of Tolkien’s work. He told the Daily Beast that he is primarily focused on improving representation in the fantasy space. “People of color exist in the world. And so I find it absolutely insane that we don’t exist or couldn’t exist in the world of fantasy, of all places.” Other cast members have come to each other’s defense: Morfydd Clark, who plays elf hero Galadriel, told Inverse that fan claims that the series strays from Tolkien’s original ideas are unfounded. “This idea that anyone could know exactly what (Tolkien) would want or like is, I think, nonsense,” he said. Cordova thanked Astin and Wood for supporting the “Rings of Power” cast. “We belong to Middle Earth,” Cordova wrote.
