Only less than 30 days remain until Magic The Gathering releases its Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth set, and not everyone is happy with how the trading card game showcased the artwork of one of the book’s key characters.
Leading up to the set’s release, Magic The Gathering showcased some of the art of the franchise’s characters that will be included in this trading card collection, most notably a singular copy of the one ring with text writing in the Black Speech of Sauron. Recently, another character had its art showcased — Aragorn, son of Arathorn and king of Gondor.
This take on a Lord of the Rings king has people divided on the character’s appearance and this might be because there is a difference in how he looks on the cards, compared to how he’s adapted in the films. In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, he was played by American actor, Viggo Mortensen. The character, as he appears on the cards, is Black.
In response to the racist hate this character art has received, one Twitter user pointed out that Aragorn being a person of color isn’t new. In the ’70s animated adaptation of the books, the character was also different from the live-action version many are familiar with. Yes, The Lord of the Rings was adapted before the Peter Jackson films. Shocking right? In the animated films, he was played by John Hurt and had a much darker complexion.
People also pointed out an old interview J R.R. Tolkien‘s son, Christopher Tolkien had with Le Monde, where he claimed that he didn’t like the Jackson film adaptations. According to ScreenRant, Tolkien saw the films we know and love as “an action movie for young people” and that the films overwhelmed him.
“Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time. The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away… They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25.”
What’s interesting is that this isn’t the only card that featured the Lord of the Rings king, and it took people this long to notice. Wizards of the Coast released a blog post in March 2023 that featured a handful of cards and products that showcased the main and supporting characters from the books. One of them is a legendary creature card titled “Aragorn and Arwen, Wed,” which featured a Black version of Aragorn.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth set will be the ninth set to be released as part of Magic the Gathering‘s Universes Beyond initiative. If you’re excited to revisit Middle Earth through this trading card game, the set will be released on June 23, 2023.