Henadic Theologian
Legend
I could list literally dozens of instances where the Jackson movies violate the tone, theme and plot of LotR, yet the people who are panning the - as yet unseen - upcoming series sing his praises, and are fuming because the casting choices and characterization in the Amazon show are so "egregiously lore breaking." There is a case of extremely selective criticism at work, and it is based on race and gender bias, because if:
1) There were no black elves,
2) There were no black hobbits and;
3) Galadriel was wearing a dress all of the time
I guarantee their messaging would be very different.
I also suspect that Nerdrotic, Geeks & Gamers, MauLer, Critical Drinker and their ilk are really just looking for clicks and are cynically playing that card.
I've read the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and I've seen the movies, but I'm not a huge Tolkien expert, I prefer the Forgotten Realms and other fantasy settings to Middle Earth.
I will say that the Forgotten Realms always had diversity baked in both in terms of humans, but also Dwarves and Elves some other races from the beginning, more then Middle Earth or any other D&D setting except maybe Planescape, so it really never had to worry about how to fit PoC in, they were always there. Same with female warriors and wizards and clerics, Ed had those in the setting from the beginning.
But Tolkien and Ed were from very dfferent parts of the world and different generations.