Harry Potter race row as Asian actress cast as a serpent
JK ROWLING has been forced to defend the casting of a South Korean actress as a snake in the latest instalment of the Fantastic Beasts film franchise.
A trailer for the Harry Potter spin-off shows Claudia Kim transforming into Nagini, which becomes the pet snake of the villainous Voldemort.
Some critics accused Rowling of “shoehorning” an Asian character into the story, while others said it was demeaning to cast an Asian actor in such a submissive role.
“Listen, Joanne, we get it, you didn’t include enough representation when you wrote the books. But suddenly making Nagini into a Korean woman is garbage,” one fan said on social media.
Rowling replied: “The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini’. They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese and Betawi.”
She claimed to have had the idea for Nagini’s half-human origins “for around 20 years”. But other fans said Rowling was “belittling the communities you’re trying to take credit for championing”. Fonda Lee, a fellow writer, said Rowling should be content to leave her books as a “white fantasy”.
Ellen Oh, another writer for young adults, said the casting played into the racist stereotype of an “exotic Asian woman who is fetishised by white men … it feels gross and creepy knowing Nagini is now an Asian woman Voldemort kept as a pet.”