The Lord of the Rings author\u2019s debt to Norse mythology is simply irrelevant when it comes to the appearance of hobbits and elves on screen today<\/p>\n
Casting has come a long way since the early 1980s when it was somehow still acceptable to sign up Max von Sydow to play Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon in 1980, or hire Peter Ustinov as the lead in Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen in 1981 (despite protests at the time<\/a>). These days, film-makers will have to defend an all-white cast in a medieval fantasy flick, which appears to be what has happened this week to The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum\u2019s Andy Serkis.<\/p>\n Asked by the BBC<\/a> why every major casting for the new film has been a white actor, Serkis appeared to lay the blame on his literary source material. \u201cTolkien himself was influenced a lot by Norse mythology, there\u2019s a lot of that feeling,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Shire feels very, very much like a very, a very white, you know \u2026 They\u2019re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of the Shire, but they know they don\u2019t want people coming in.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6b2ed1e5b721d0320a7bbcbe82dccb610ea6428f\/0_399_2390_1913\/master\/2390.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=450680714f71932f9ce5261ca2d4ff63\" "\\"The")
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