
Voldemort’s giant snake and Horcrux, Nagini, has been given a back story in the latest Fantastic Beasts film and the casting of a South Korean actress in the role has sparked heated conversations online.
In the books, Nagini was simply a snake with magical powers, but now, the final trailer of Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald revealed that she was once a woman.
Claudia Kim was cast in the role, and it raised some eyebrows.
One fan wrote:
‘JKR’s Fantastic Beasts universe was truly the most disgusting thing to ever happen to Harry Potter and Harry James Potter.
Im [sic] still so disgusted by the way she wrote Credence and his condition and turns out her writing can get worse!
Nagini is basically Voldemort’s SERVANT and PET forced to do his bidding for life because it’s a giant evil snake right…now it is revealed that Claudia Kim is playing Nagini and she’s blood cursed to turn into a beast and it only affects women and of course she picks an Asian woman like that’s not stereotypically disgusting enough.
Some people argued that having one of the only non-white characters in Harry Potter submissive to Voldemort, is offensive.
How Nagini's role plays into the unthinkingly racist subtext of #FantasticBeasts. https://t.co/Px0UXWZhGH https://t.co/e33hHwZ2vy— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Gavia Baker-Whitelaw) 1537973154
Tea: The new backstory about Nagini is not only nonsensical but incredibly racist and offensive to Asian females an… https://t.co/TTaXdTF0us— Jaded (@Jaded) 1537887019
JK Rowling is a great writer... but a terrible author. She actively works to destroy appreciation of Harry Potter w… https://t.co/ugUW5sXAg2— Alexis Jowski (@Alexis Jowski) 1538054486
Others didn't see a problem with the casting
Am seriously confused about this whole Nagini / JK Rowling argument. Why are people saying that it's racist to make… https://t.co/mnLfvoUJKO— Amita Joshi-Welton (@Amita Joshi-Welton) 1538042499
as an asian woman I'm not particularly offended about claudia being nagini, I actually think it's kinda cool to kno… https://t.co/C8jrBrPDDt— 🍓🌕 (@🍓🌕) 1537923790
Nagini was never just ‘a pet’ for Voldemort. These SJW need to reread the books and see how much Voldemort values h… https://t.co/IGBdkb8EPE— Alexander Thian (@Alexander Thian) 1538020049
J K Rowling used Twitter to defend her decision, writing that Nagini was based on the Indonesian mythological creature, 'Naga'
@J_A_Moulton The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini.’ They are… https://t.co/YGToXOGBwQ— J.K. Rowling (@J.K. Rowling) 1537960291
But that, too, was challenged.
@spielerman @jk_rowling name is Sanskrit, can only be from India, Nagin means snake, this is the fight I have chosen— Proma (@Proma) 1537907784
Secret of the Nagas was the second book I bought in India. I am horrified by her whitewashing and erasure of contex… https://t.co/Mv2Dpv1QbS— Jean Burke-Spraker (@Jean Burke-Spraker) 1537981881
More: Harry Potter: J.K. Rowling confirms a fan theory about Hermione's name
More: J.K Rowling 'confirms' dark Harry Potter fan theory about Dumbledore