The Rings of Power Hired On-Set Therapist for Cast After Racist Backlash

Amazon Prime Video released the first season of their hit series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and it featured some major changes to the source material. One of those changes was adding people of color into roles as elves and other species in Tolkien lore. The Rings of Power faced the "wrath" of racist fans, and those fans even sent the actors hate messages all over social media. Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays Arondir the elf in the series, recently spoke with Variety about how he was treated and revealed that the studio brought on-set therapist to talk with the cast members who have been facing the racist 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."

"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 Rings of Power star added

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerWas Ahead of the Competition 

The Rings of Power is ahead of its epic fantasy rival House of the Dragon in Nielsen's ratings. The most recent episode of The Rings of Power left fans in shock after revealing the origin of an iconic Middle-earth location. The series co-showrunner reflected on the series' direction ahead of the first season finale.

"A huge theme in Tolkien is the environmentalism and the way machines and industrializations destroys the land," McKay told The Hollywood Reporter. "We wanted that to be central and core all the time. It's a thing that comes up again and again throughout the show. So in the writers room, we asked: What if Mordor was beautiful? All bucolic like Switzerland. And then what could happen that could transform it? We talked about the poisoning of the land — which starts in the first episode with the cow. Then you find out about the tunnels being dug and sulfur is going up into the air. It all builds toward this geologically realistic way of igniting the mountain, which now blacks out the sky for a very practical reason — Adar, our villain, sees the Orcs as his people and they deserve a home where the sun doesn't torment them. We're hoping it will take people by surprise."

What do you think about this? Are you excited for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!