Home

"The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini'"

JK Rowling has defended the decision to cast South Korean actress Claudia Kim as Nagini in the Fantastic Beasts sequel.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has defended casting South Korean actress Claudia Kim as Nagini in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – the sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

When it was announced that Kim (Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Dark Tower, Marco Polo) would portray Nagini, many slammed the decision as “racist”.

“The revelation that Nagini is actually a human woman (with an Asian actress cast in the role) cursed to become a snake is…a racist, misogynist disaster,” one Twitter user wrote.

“How did nobody involved in Fantastic Beasts 2 look at this Nagini situation and think, “huh, this sounds problematic…”?” Another questioned. “Because it’s problematic as FUCK.”

“The new Fantastic Beasts trailer was visually amazing but i dont know what to feel about this whole Nagini thing,” another wrote.

In a sarcastic tweet, one user simply wrote, “let’s retroactively turn a woman of color into a literal object owned by a white man inspired by nazis.”

Another social media user tweeted Rowling directly, “listen Joanne, we get it, you didn’t include enough representation when you wrote the books. But suddenly making Nagini into a Korean woman is garbage. Representation as an afterthought for more woke points is not good representation”

Rowling defended the casting decision and tweeted back that Naga are Indonesian. “The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini.’” Rowling replied. “They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese and Betawi. Have a lovely day.”

However, some were still not impressed by Rowling’s response. “Nagini was a human woman all along“ really is a bold addition to JK Rowling’s list of post-series canon retcons,” one person wrote.

Others slammed the author for not knowing that Naga mythology is Indian, not Indonesian. “Actually @jk_rowling the Naga mythology emerged from India. It travelled to Indonesia with the Indic/Hindu empires that emerged there in the early Common Era, with the influence of Indian traders and Rishis/Rishikas who travelled there. Nagin is a Sanskrit language word.”

Nonetheless, others still jumped to the defence of the British author with one person tweeting, “honestly JKR, these people are just a bunch of greedy, entitled jerks who don’t deserve to even read your work, visit your theme parks, cinemas, or interact with your world at all. I wouldn’t want them in my fandom if they didn’t like my rules. They aren’t the bosses! YOU ARE!”