J.K. Rowling's ‘Nagini' sparks racist controversy in new Fantastic Beasts movie

LONDON: The next film in the Fantastic Beasts series is facing accusations of racism after the latest trailer dropped recently.

The final trailer’s big reveal is that Voldemort’s snake Nagini was once human, and she’s not like anything Potter fans have seen before.

As the trailer released people were quick to point out one problem that seemed upsetting to many. The producers chose to cast an Asian actress to play a role of a cursed woman whose future is to be a white villain (Lord Voldemort’s) pet slave.

Many twitter users didn’t hesitate to give out a piece of their mind about what they actually thought of the latest revelation and casting.

I have no words for how disgusted I am by the whole Nagini thing. To have a creature depicted as no more than a beast revealed to be a PERSON, a WOMAN, is bad enough, but for her to specifically be an East Asian woman?

Bad look. Bad fucking look.

— JY Yang ✍🏼 (they/them) (@halleluyang) September 26, 2018

How desperate to cling to JKR’s coattails do you have to be to start arguing that Nagini was Voldemort’s best buddy, equal, precious love and all the other ridiculous things I’ve been seeing? She was a pet. A tool to help him stay alive. A servant who did as he commanded. Gtfo.

— Sangu Mandanna (@SanguMandanna) September 26, 2018

On today’s episode of Outrage Culture:
White people are upset that Nagini from Harry Potter is depicted as an Asian woman, on Asian people’s behalf, while actual Asian fans are chill about it.

Hashtag notallwhitepeople.

— Will (@Matarael) September 27, 2018

My biggest complaint with all this Rowling controversy is how badly they have anglicized the pronounciation of Nagini. It’s NAA-GI-NI, not NUH-GEE-NEE smh.

— Sandhya Ramesh (@sandygrains) September 27, 2018

If @jk_rowling knew Asian mythological history in-depth, an Indian would have been cast as Nagini.

— HindolSengupta (@HindolSengupta) September 27, 2018

Hey @jk_rowling I’m with you!

Nagini can be whatever she wants to be! She’s a strong woman/snake.

Also, can you write me into the next movie? I’m Macaulay Culkin (From Home Alone: The Movie) and I was also a Pagemaster (experienced with magic)…

— Macaulay Culkin (@IncredibleCulk) September 26, 2018

THREAD: I rly dont get why people are saying JKR is lying about keeping the nagini secret for 20 years?? What would she gain from lying about it? This woman has a backstory for characters who appeared for 2 lines in the entire series (eg. Florean Fortescue) #FantasticBeasts

— Daya Subramanian (@daya894) September 27, 2018

If Nagini was cast with a white actress people would be upset it wasn’t a POC actress. Now Nagini is cast with a POC actress and it’s a problem? I get the whole retroactive representation thing. I really do. But let’s just say WHAT IF they actually listened to the issues raised pic.twitter.com/EIRYoqBuWd

— Darth Maul’s Lightsaber (@singfromthehair) September 27, 2018

The final trailer released just two days ago is trending on Youtube at #6 Worldwide and has managed to attract  5,624,119 views since then.

The film is set to release on November 16th.