Nagini’s Casting in ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Sparks Massive Debate for Being ‘Offensive,’ ‘Racist’
By Bryan Ke
September 28, 2018
The final trailer for “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” caused fans of the series to call out the offensive casting of South Korean actress Claudia Kim as Nagini, Voldemort’s giant snake, and his most protected Horcrux.
Following the announcement for the final trailer, many netizens raised their concerns about an Asian woman being tapped to play a “slave” to Voldemort.
“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,” a fan wrote, according to Indy100.
Other fans took to Twitter to express that Kim’s casting as Nagini in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is just plain racist.
VICE went on to describe the casting as a portrayal of Asian women stereotypes. The opinion piece reads: “Nagini, played by Claudia Kim, is in a cage while an audience watches her transform into a snake, echoing historical strains of the sexy, dangerous “dragon lady.” She also quite literally houses a piece of Voldemort’s soul, acting as a guarantor of his immortality, thus reifying the trope of Asian women as submissive.”
Meanwhile, The Daily Dot went on to call the character’s introduction as a “circus freak.”
However, not everyone was upset with the casting, and don’t see a problem with Kim in the role of Nagini.
One fan tried to make sense of the whole issue.
Author J.K. Rowling also took to social media to clear up the name Nagini, explaining that it is based off an Indonesian mythological creature known as the Naga.
However, her attempt to defend the casting backfired when another fan educated her on the Naga mythology.
What do you think?
Images via YouTube / Warner Bros. Pictures
H/T: The Independent
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