Game of Thrones: The Mad King Casts a Stunningly Diverse Roster, And The Racists Are Already Sharpening Their Knives

You know the drill by now. A major fantasy production announces a cast that actually looks like the real world, and suddenly, everyone who claims to care about “historical accuracy” loses their collective mind. In a story world with dragons, blood magic, prophetic dreams, ice zombies and ancient curses, some people have decided the true threat to canon is Black actors.

The Royal Shakespeare Company has unveiled the cast for Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a new stage play based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The production is adapted by Duncan Macmillan, directed by Dominic Cooke, and set before the main events of Game of Thrones. The RSC cast list includes Michael Shaeffer as King Aerys II Targaryen, Michael Abubakar as Eddard Stark, Elizabeth Ayodele as Princess Elia Martell, Edem-Ita Duke as Oberyn Martell and Tanisha Spring as Ashara Dayne.

Cue the outrage industrial complex.

Here’s what Variety reported.

The Royal Shakespeare Company has unveiled a 36-strong cast for the play “Game of Thrones: The Mad King,” with Michael Shaeffer in the title role of King Aerys II Targaryen.

The world premiere … opens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on Aug. 8 and runs through Sept. 5.

Noah Ritter plays Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, with Harmony Rose-Bremner as Lyanna Stark, Michael Abubakar as Eddard Stark and Callum Woodhouse as Lord Robert Baratheon. … Further casting sees Maxim Ays as Ser Jaime Lannister, Daisy Franks as Cersei Lannister, Edem-Ita Duke as Oberyn Martell, Elizabeth Ayodele as Princess Elia Martell and Hughie O’Donnell as Lord Varys. … Tanisha Spring as Ashara Dayne.

Theatre Already Proved Colour-Conscious Casting Works

One thing I love about theatre is that it has embraced colour-blind and colour-conscious casting for generations. Stage plays have already proved this can work brilliantly. Hamilton, Six, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Romeo and Juliet, Death of a Salesman and Much Ado About Nothing all show that theatre audiences can accept fresh casting when the performance, direction and story are strong.

Now, with George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones: The Mad King coming to the Royal Shakespeare Company, we have another high-profile example of fantasy theatre opening itself up to bold casting choices. Michael Abubakar as Eddard Stark? Edem-Ita Duke as Oberyn Martell? Elizabeth Ayodele as Elia Martell? Tanisha Spring as Ashara Dayne? Sign me up.

Martin himself praised the cast, saying:

“I love this cast – they bring all the strengths, flaws and intricacies within these characters that drive this important chapter of Westerosi history. They have a fire in them, and I can’t wait to see them bring that fire to the stage.”

And this is not new for Martin’s world. Tanzyn Crawford, who plays Tanselle in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, said she faced negativity around race, but recalled Martin telling her she was “exactly what I pictured” for the role. House of the Dragon also made House Velaryon a Black noble family, a choice rooted partly in Martin’s own early idea of imagining Valyrians or Velaryons as Black with silver hair.

That should be enough to end the discourse. Martin likes the cast, and he has never been shy about voicing strong opinions when his work is adapted, cough, cough, Ryan Condal. The RSC has made its choices. The story is now in the hands of theatre professionals. But of course, it is never enough for the people who treat fantasy like private racial property.

The Backlash Is Always Dressed Up As Accuracy

We are living through a reactionary cultural moment where anti-DEI panic, anti-immigrant rhetoric and culture-war outrage have turned inclusive casting into a target. Compare the cultural reception of Hamilton, which cast Black, Latino and Asian actors as America’s founding figures, with the backlash Francesca Amewudah-Rivers faced for playing Juliet opposite Tom Holland in Romeo and Juliet. More than 800 mostly Black female and non-binary actors signed an open letter supporting her after she faced racist abuse online.

More recently, Mandipa Kabana’s casting as Joan of Arc in a Scottish production of Saint Joan sparked the same tired complaints about “historical accuracy.”

And now we are seeing it again with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Lupita Nyong’o is playing Helen of Troy, and suddenly, the same people who usually shrug at decades of white actors playing non-white or non-Greek figures have discovered a deep concern for authenticity. Nyong’o addressed the backlash by reminding people that Homer’s epic is mythological, not a documentary.

Helen of Troy has been played on screen by many actresses, most of them white and not Greek. That rarely caused a moral panic. But cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, and suddenly some people act like civilisation itself is under threat.

Epic Stories Were Never Meant To Be This Small

The uncomfortable truth is simple: some viewers cling to a narrow, exclusionary vision of fantasy and insist on treating Westeros as if it should remain racially pure. But Westeros is not a documentary. Martin built a world of invented dynasties, old gods, new gods, fire priests, shadow babies, green dreams and dragons.

If your imagination can stretch to a woman giving birth to smoke magic but not to a Black actor playing a Stark, the issue is not the casting. The issue is you.

Theatre already proved the point years ago. Colour-conscious casting does not weaken a story. It can deepen the story and make it more accessible to audiences everywhere. The backlash is not proof that the casting failed. It is proof that some people still cannot handle seeing actors of colour placed at the centre of beauty, power, tragedy and myth.

So bring on The Mad King. Bring on Lupita’s Helen. Bring on Tanzyn Crawford’s Tanselle. And let the racists scream into the void. The stage, the screen and Westeros will be just fine without them.