Popular writer J.K. Rowling found herself at the business end of a social media backlash after her decision to cast a Korean actor for the role of Nagini. On Wednesday, Harry Potter fans were stunned to learn that Nagini, who makes several appearances as Voldemort’s pet, is no ordinary snake. She is revealed to be a Maledictus—a woman who carries a blood curse from birth that would turn her into a beast. According to Rowling, Maledictuses are not necessarily evil and can take the form of other creatures as well.
One Twitter user questioned Rowling on the lack of representation when she first wrote the books. “Suddenly making Nagini into a Korean woman is garbage,” she wrote, adding that representation as an afterthought for more woke points is not good representation. Rowling replied via a tweet that the Naga were snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, and hence named ‘Nagini.’ “They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese and Betawi,” she wrote.
That brings us to a very significant point. Will retroactively changing the character backstories of the franchise, which, on numerous occasions, had come under fire for lack of representation of coloured communities, make any sort of difference? Earlier, Rowling had made a big reveal that Dumbledore was “gay”, and that further storylines would explore the angle. She had supported the casting of Noma Dumezweni, a black actor, for the role of Hermione Granger in the theatre production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She had tweeted in 2015: “brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione”. Contrast that to her bestselling works, where except for recurring characters like Cho Chang and Patil sisters, most characters are white.
On Wednesday, Rowling replied to one of the many queries on Twitter that she had been carrying the secret about Nagini "only for around twenty years". She clarified that there is a "big difference" between a Maledictus and an Animagus. Rowling reiterated that Nagini was not the boa constrictor that Harry Potter set free in the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and it remains "an incorrect, but very persistent" fan theory. However, she was rebuked by users who said that ‘Naag’ was a Sanskrit word that originated in India. Wrote popular Indian mythology author Amish Tripathy: “Actually @jk_rowling the Naga mythology emerged from India. It travelled to Indonesia with the Indic/Hindu empires that emerged there in the early Common Era, with the influence of Indian traders and Rishis/Rishikas who travelled there. Nagin is a Sanskrit language word.”
In addition, the Asian character in the very homogenous pantheon of characters, Nagini is shown to be a circus performer in the movie turned a servile, evil snake.