Lord of the Rings' Orlando Bloom Post Photo Supporting Rings of Power's Ismael Cruz Córdova

By Kofi Outlaw

The Elf squad rolls tight – as you can see for yourself below, in a photo that Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom posted, showing him standing alongside Amazon's Rings of Power TV series star Ismael Cruz Córdova. Bloom captioned the photo with the word "mellon" followed by the yellow male elf emoji – a clear indicator toward the J.R.R. Tolkien's official Elvish dictionary, where the word mellon translates to "friend" in Sindarin and Noldorin languages. 

 There's no more that Orlando Bloom needs to say in order to achieve his goal: showing solidarity and support for Córdova, as the latter has been forced to bear the brunt of the backlash against Amazon's Rings of Power series on Prime Video. The Puerto Rican actor has been the focus of hate for being a person of color playing an elf in the Tolkien Universe – a casting that some cite as obligatory diversity that flies in the face of Tolkien's depictions of the elf race.  

Orlando Bloom now joins some of his other Lord of the Rings castmates in this sort of public support of Córdova. The iconic Lord of the Rings Trilogy Hobbit Squad ( Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd ) did a big public display of support when Rings of Power first premiered. The actors posted photos (Wood, Monaghan, and Boyd together; Astin on his own) with a unified Elvish message of "You are all welcome here"  inscribed on a clothing line launched by Don Marshall, which display Elf ears of every color. Each Hobbit actor wore a piece of clothing in a show of support of the inclusionary vision of Tolkien's Universe, which has only gotten more widely popular since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was released in the 2000s, followed by The Hobbit Trilogy in the 2010s, and now the popular Rings of Power prequel series. 

For his part, Ismael Cruz Córdova has made it clear that he did not accept the role of noble Elf warrior Arondir in The Rings of Power with any kind of naivete in mind about what kind of ugly reaction it would get: 

"I fought so hard for this role for this very reason," Córdova told Esquire. "I felt that I could carry that torch. I made sure that my elf was the most Elven, the most incredible because I knew this was coming."

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is releasing new Season 1 episodes Fridays on Prime Video.

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