According to Comicbook, the Prime Video series The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power has added therapist on set for the cast after racist backlash. Since its start the series has added a major change to the Lord of The Rings lore by introducing people of color into roles such as elves. This caused the wrath of many racist fans who sent massive amounts of hate messages on social media to Ismael Cruz Córdova (In the Blood) who plays Arondir in the series. Recently Córdova spoke with Variety about the therapist being on set to talk with different cast members who have been receiving backlash.
“You need support when this happens because the voices are so loud and they’re coming at you from so many places,” Córdova said. “I loved seeing her there, even if we didn’t speak,” he said. “I knew there was someone there seeing me completely. It wasn’t just as an actor.”
Córdova continued, “It hurt. It had a psychological and mental health impact. That’s something that I’m very, very open about so that people understand that what they do and say online really hurts people, really has an impact on us. I had bank account attempts of being hacked. My PayPal got hacked. My friends got messages. I got death threats. I got things mailed to me. People found out my address. It was a lot of that.”
The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power brings to life the second age of Middle-Earth’s history with a prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings. Taking all fans of the franchise back to when the great powers were being forged and the greatest villain Tolkien had created.
Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.