How and Why J.K. Rowling’s ‘Nagini’ Character Reveal is Touching on Racist Tropes About Asian Women
Enter “The Dragon Lady.”
Let’s get this out of the way: no matter how the character of Nagini is handled in the second Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie, I will not be watching it in theaters. I am not going to give my hard-earned money to a movie franchise that willingly continued to have Johnny Depp, a man who abuses women, cast in a prominent role. There’s simply no excuse for supporting or defending Depp.
If you pay attention to Harry Potter related news, you’ll have seen a sharp spike of frenzy a few days ago[September 25th, 2018], due to the release of the latest Fantastic Beasts trailer. A lot of this frenzy is actually backlash, as it was revealed that Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini, who served as a vessel for a fragment of his soul — was actually originally a woman, played by South Korean actress Claudia Kim. This backlash isn’t coming out of nowhere, and it ought to be understood.
Some other caveats before I continue:
- I don’t blame Claudia Kim for being cast as Nagini, or being excited about her role.
- I assume Claudia Kim is a wonderful actress, and I wish her all the best in her career.
- Yes, you can criticize a movie’s choices before it comes out, based entirely on the trailer. This is the point of a trailer — to ask you to favorably judge the movie as worthy of spending money to…
