Sir Lenny Henry addresses racism in fantasy genre ahead of The Rings of Power launch-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Lenny has discussed racism in fantasy shows (Picture: Amazon Prime/Getty)

Sir Lenny Henry has spoken out about racism in fantasy programmes and books as anticipation heats up for The Lord of the Rings sequel The Rings of Power.

The national treasure will play harfoot Sadoc Burrows in the JRR Tolkein adaptation that is set thousands of years before Peter Jackson’s film trilogy and The Hobbit.

The 64-year-old joins the likes of His Dark Materials’ Morfydd Clark and Game of Thrones’ Robert Amarayo on the cast which features a mix of new and famous faces.

Landing on Amazon Prime on Friday, the series is reported to be the most expensive made, costing a whopping $1billion (£858million) across five planned seasons.

Ahead of The Rings of Power launch, the comedian, who was previously married to Dawn French, addressed racism in the genre saying it was becoming ‘more inclusive.’

Speaking to GQ, he said: ‘They have no trouble believing in a dragon, but they do have trouble believing that a Black person could be a member of the court. Or that a Black person could be a hobbit or an elf.’

Sir Lenny is in the LOTR prequel (Picture: Getty Images)

‘Actually, storytellers can do what they want, because they’re storytellers. In the reimagining of these stories from 1000 years ago, they are not part of the canon that everybody knows, this is a reimagining and re-weaving of the story.’

Praising The Rings of Power showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay for featuring a more diverse cast, Sir Lenny added: ‘JD Payne and Patrick McKay have just gone, “What if?” The greatest two words in storytelling: What if.’

The Rings of Power arrives on Friday (Picture: Amazon Prime)

Other stars in the drama have spoken about the casting, which features the first female dwarves to be depicted on screen, while

Ismael Cruz Cordova plays silvan elf Arondir, and is the first person of colour to play an elf in a Tolkien screen adaptation.

Meanwhile, British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi plays healer Bronwyn, and Sophia Nomvete is the first Black woman to be playing a Lord of the Rings dwarf.

Cordova told  Entertainment Weekly: ‘That was something I really dreamt about [being an elf], but on the flip side, it was something that was a little painful because there weren’t elves that looked like me.’

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He added: ‘It became a personal but distant dream, up until the moment where this opportunity opened up. So I ferociously went for it.’

Boniadi added: ‘This was not stunt casting.’

The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power is coming to Amazon Prime Video on September 2.

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