I sat there last week, headphones on, listening to Andy Serkis talk about orcs and hobbits and the pull of old stories, and found myself wondering how we got to the point where even Middle-earth needs a diversity audit. The man is directing and starring as Gollum in the upcoming prequel The Hunt for Gollum, set between the events of The Hobbit and the original trilogy. It dives into the origins of the One Ring and the twisted psychology of his character. The cast revealed so far features familiar faces: Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf, Elijah Wood as Frodo, alongside Jamie Dornan, Kate Winslet, Anya Taylor-Joy, Leo Woodall and Lee Pace as Thranduil. All very much in keeping with the world Tolkien sketched out. Release is pencilled in for 17 December 2027.
Serkis made the remarks in a BBC interview conducted around 14 July. He was there primarily to talk about his work on an animated Animal Farm, yet the conversation drifted, as these things do, to the familiar complaints about the lack of diversity in the franchise. His response felt measured, almost weary. He pointed out that Tolkien drew heavily from Norse mythology. The Shire, he said, came across as a very white community. Its inhabitants were not overly bothered by what happened beyond their borders, but they knew they did not want outsiders coming in.
There is something quietly revealing in that description. It is not a value judgement so much as an observation rooted in the text itself. Tolkien was not writing a United Nations pamphlet. He was crafting a mythology for England, steeped in the folklore and landscapes that shaped him. To pretend otherwise is to rewrite the man as much as the map.
Serkis went on to say the new film would acknowledge such criticisms where they felt relevant. But he drew a firm line. They would not be doing a politically correct, just-casting-for-the-sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version. The approach, he suggested, would be pragmatic. Address diversity only where it serves the story, not where it flatters contemporary sensibilities.
I have to admit a certain relief hearing it put so plainly. For years now the pressure has been relentless: every classic tale must be retrofitted, every cast list scanned for the correct proportions, every deviation from the source celebrated as progress. The Peter Jackson films faced the same grumbling, even though they arrived before colour-blind casting became an article of faith in Hollywood. Now the cycle repeats with Serkis's project. The early announcements triggered the usual murmurs. Too pale, too English, too faithful.