House of the Dragon's Diversity Casting Betrays the Diversity of Martin's Universe
Culture,Race And Racism,Hollywood,Television,Diversity
HBO's House of the Dragon, the prequel to the hit show Game of Thrones, made headlines for its diversity casting, with Black actors being given major roles in the show. The headlines weren't all positive; the casting somewhat flew in the face of the plot, which revolves around the race-purity obsessed Targaryen family. It was jarring to many, including myself, to suddenly see Black actors portraying characters with Valyrian ancestry married into the Targaryen family fold, like Steve Toussaint, who portrays Lord Coryls Velaryon. But others extolled the decision, casting it as the show runners themselves did, as a kind of corrective to the original material.
The popularity of the original Game of Thrones HBO series did not shield the show and its creators from intense criticism during the series run, with headlines like "Game of Thrones: we need to talk about the show's diversity problem" and "There are no black people on Game of Thrones: Why is fantasy TV so white?" a regular feature of the Monday morning press.
