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George R.R. Martin has built a fantasy world that is so immense and breathtaking in his A Song of Ice and Fire novels that fans often imagine a life within their pages. Which is why when it comes to his readers, cohesion with the source sticks out as a major requirement for any on-screen adaptation.
George R. R. Martin at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International | Credits: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0However, adapting a lore that is as expansive as his books for the TV screens is not at all easy. Moreover, showrunners and networks often take creative liberties. And the worst of them all was the problem with Velaryon’s race in House of the Dragon.
House of the Dragon chose Black actors to play Velaryons
Corlys Velaryon in House of the Dragon| HBO MaxWhen the first season of House of the Dragon premiered in 2022, it performed beyond expectations. The cast of the show was loved by the viewers, but before that, a lot of fans had serious issues with some of the actors.
The major concern of a wide section of fans online was the race change of Velaryons from the books, and they called out the show for being “woke” in the name of diversity. The Velaryons are a lesser Valyrian House, who weren’t dragonlords but found strength in seafaring. Being a vassal of House Targaryen, they escaped with them before the Doom of Valyria.
Valyrians are often described as fair-skinned people, with silvery white hair and purple eyes. While House of the Dragon got the hair right, they employed Black actors to play the Velaryons, and it did not sit well with a lot of fans. And actors like Steve Toussaint had to face the wrath of the fans, despite giving an incredible performance as Corlys Velaryon.
George R.R. Martin’s co-authors were against the change from the books
While George R.R. Martin himself never spoke against it, his frequent collaborators and owners of westeros.org, Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr., expressed their disappointment about the race change in an interview with Variety.
A still from House of the Dragon‘s Velaryon familyAntonsson expressed frustration over her statements being taken out of context, saying, “People have ‘cherry-picked’ statements stripped of context.” She finds it troubling to be labeled a racist, emphasizing that her focus has always been on world-building. She acknowledged that while she supports inclusive casting, she firmly believes that “diversity should not trump story.”
This comes after a series of complaints by both Garcia and Antonsson, with Antonsson calling out Black actors being cast as Velaryons in a blog post (via Variety). She wrote:
There are no Black Valyrians and there should not be any in the show.
Antonsson further defended her stance in the interview, saying:
If George had indeed made the Valyrians Black instead of white, as he mused on his ‘Not a Blog’ in 2013, and this new show proposed to make the Velaryons anything other than Black, we would have had the same issue with it and would have shared the same opinion
The racism row put a dent in Martin’s creations, which were no fault of his. His world was already quite diverse, and many fans found the changes unacceptable.
However, book lovers also need to understand that the casting is not the fault of the actors, but the production itself. And the race change had little effect on the show’s storyline, compared to the massive blunders House of the Dragon committed in Season 2.
House of the Dragon is currently streaming on HBO Max.
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