The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star responds to fan backlash: ‘I don’t think you can tune it out’

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Morfydd Clark has said that she is unable to “tune out” the backlash to the series from some of the franchise’s fans.

The TV series , based on the original writings of JRR Tolkien and set centuries before the events of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, debuted on Prime Video in 2022.

At the time of the first season’s release, some viewers responded negatively to the deviations from the source material, and some of the show’s Black cast members were targeted with racist abuse on social media.

Ahead of the show’s return, Welsh actor Clark, 35, who plays the elf Galadriel, was asked about the response in an interview with NME .

“I don’t think you really can tune it out,” Clark responded.

“Our cast’s really close and we’re as happy as our least happy castmate… some people need to be protected and picked up and that’s something that is just going to be ongoing.”

Around the time of the first season’s release, the cast members jointly posted a lengthy statement on Instagram calling out the “relentless harassment” that some of the actors had received.

In the statement they affirm that “BIPOC people belong in Middle-earth and are here to stay.”

Reflecting on the response, Clark said: “I’m really glad that we did that. I think it was really important for our castmates, but also I couldn’t really appreciate how much it would mean to so many people…

“We all wrote the message together in different countries – being like, ‘I don’t think the comma’s in the right place.’ It was like, ‘Oh my god we’re never going to post this thing!’

“And then eventually Ben Walker [who plays High King Gil-Galad] was just like, ‘I’ve posted it, go!’ And so we all went live… It was showing the best parts of the community.”

The Rings of Power returns on 29 August, when it will release the first two episodes of its second season.

Subsequent episodes will be released weekly on Prime Video.