WMG / Bright

Candidates for the 4 unaccounted for races in the setting

• The alliance that defeated the Dark Lord over 2,000 years ago was made up of 9 races. Over the course of the movie humans, elves, orcs and centaurs are seen on screen, while the dwarves are mentioned as having a community in Miami. This leaves four sapient races unaccounted for in the setting. Among the likeliest candidates are:
  • Giants, who would have a hard time living in a human city because of their size.
  • Halflings, keeping in line with the Tolkien-esque aspects of the setting.
  • Ogres, as an injoke to the mention of Shrek.
  • Werebeings, who could pass for humans most of the time and be easily retconned into having been in the movie all along.
  • Goblins, who would be looked down on like the Orc, but seen mostly as a joke by the other races
  • Lizard Folk, due to a crossing sign seen in the beginning of the movie.
  • Dragons, as them being a sentient race could explain the fact that nobody cares when one is flying over the city, unless they're somekind of powerful but benign animals in this setting.
    • Dragonborn, possibly crossing the latter two over into one.
  • A prop made for the movie (a census overview) in addition to the humans, orcs, elves, centaurs and dwarves mentioned or shown in the movie, indicated the US has minorities of goblins, giants, ogres, brezziks and panahu, plus nonspecific others classified as 'Rare & Endangered', suggesting that the Alliance of Nine Races didn't consist of all races in the setting (possibly as some simply are native to areas the Dark Lord hadn't reached when he was killed — the "History of Magic" video, while inconsistent with the 2000 years ago timing, implies he was based around the Middle East).

The non-human races were incredibly rare until one wished for the current world

• The history of this world, where things like the Alamo and the Shrek movie still happened doesn't make sense. The affect on history should have been far more profound. That's because someone, likely an elf, wished for a world in which the fantasy races were common, instead of a tiny, hidden, dying population rapidly fading into legend. The result is a world and history that doesn't make sense, having been jammed into reality by a wish.
  • It would explain the elves ruling the world bit. The film hints at it briefly, but it is likely that elves (or even just one elf), got hold of a wand and rewrote the world so that elves were the ruling class. Likely also why they get a pass for their ancestors while orcs are hated on for it.

Jakoby is the Reincarnation of Jirak à la King Arthur/Jesus

• We hear of "The" Great Prophecy, and that Jirak fulfilled it by rising from a lowly outcast farmer to defeating the Dark Lord. The movie's opening title card bears a quotation from The Great Prophecy that is styled in a similar manner that one would quote the Bible, with Jirak's resistance mentioned explicitly as happening 2,000 years ago. Jakoby later compares himself to Jirak directly after being resurrected and the Orc Priest stating that "He has risen" while also referencing the Prophecy. Combined with this we have Tikka, a magical elf connected to pools of water, and Jakoby's companion, Ward who is a Wizard. King Arthur and Jesus are both said to return, Arthur when England needs him, and as such Jakoby seems to be set up as an analogous messianic return of Jirak, in time to re-fulfill the Prophecy of the Dark Lord's revival.

The Dark Lord wasn't quite as bad as the legends say

• That is, he was still a ruthless, power-hungry, tyrannical and very, very powerful despot who it was a very good thing was stopped... but he was a far more mundane tyrant than the nigh-on-Devil figure modern-day people (both his followers and others) see him as, two-thousand years' worth of eventually self-perpetuating propaganda (both to emphasise the renegade elf bit and to demonise orcs) turned him into that.
• Or a fate of Gone Horribly Right if he intended Orc as disposable soldiers and laborers but ended up as brutal servitors without any accountability measures.

Undead

• I know the movie doesn't have undead yet, but I feel that they would be treated as how homophobic person would view members of LGBTQ; discounting the undead's stench, and craving for human flesh. Unlike races, undead would be diverse (Any races can die) and tend to be soldaritious clique as their collective fear by all (to an extent) races.

The Orc's stories about Jirak leading the army against the Dark Lord exaggerate his role or, at least, the other races remember it differently.

• We only hear about Jirak as the leader of the Army of Nine Races from Orcs. It's possible that his role in the story has grown in the telling and other races would consider their own leaders to have been more significant.

The Shrek series in relation to the world of Bright

• Would this series even exist in this setting? The movie's character was used as an insult to a member of the orcish race, begging the question of why they would have been made in the first place. Does that mean the Grimm's fairy tales (on which Shrek is heavily based) also exist in this universe? The question would be why? The Grimm tales are cautionary and meant to warn against things like "don't wander in the woods by yourself" and contain characters that in the world of Bright would be considered extremely offensive. Yes, the message of Shrek is "don't judge a book by it's cover," but would also reinforce negative stereotypes like orcs/ogres wanting to live in a swamp and enjoying eating eyeballs. It is a confusing reference made in a setting that probably wouldn't have had the reference in the first place. Compare this with making a movie in modern times that depicts the worst stereotypes of any race that can be imagined. As entertainment. Yes, this did happen (for an example, consider Warner Brothers cartoons from the 50's), but since Bright's world is supposed to mirror ours....
  • The world mirrors ours to an extent, but the prejudices are much stronger than real world prejudices are most places. Jakoby is the first orc police officer in the LAPD - in our world, the first black officer in the LAPD was over a hundred years ago. Extremely offensive racial stereotypes didn't become uncommon in media for a long time after that.
    • Shrek was based on a character from a children’s book, which was made long enough ago that it would make sense for such a minstrel show to exist.

Dragons in this setting don't breathe fire

Or just generally aren't hugely destructive, which is why one of them flying around LA isn't a huge deal. Perhaps they're even sapient and helpful, like certain asian dragon legends.

Religion in this setting

The intro quote is presented similar to how a bible verse would be. Jirak was a messianic figure type who lived 2000 years ago, like Jesus. Also, Dorghu holds court in a church, with an orc holy man present. There are no traditionally Christian markings in or on the church, no crosses or stainedglass windows. It isn't an abandoned church used as a gang hideout, it is an orc church. In this setting, "Christianity" is the Orkish belief system, and perhaps it didn't spread to the other races.

• And to take it a bit further, Orcs generally correspond to Jewish people. Jewish people were discriminated and accused of betraying Jesus, even though Jesus and the rest of the disciples were also Jewish, just like orcs were discriminated against for siding with the dark lord, even though an orc led an alliance to oppose him.

Orcs can be Brights too

While the exact details about how the Dark Lord was defeated are left vague, according to Serling he could only be defeated with magic. This means only other Brights were capable of bringing him down. Since there is no mention of other heroes besides Jirak that could have defeated him, its possible Jirak might have been a Bright powerful enough on par with the Dark Lord. One graffiti in the prologue has an orc casting a spell on cops with the saying "Curse the police". The general implication is that orcs can have Brights too, albeit even more rare than humans and if the orc prophecy is any indication Nick might be their Chosen One and a latent Bright if he is really Jirak's reincarnation.

• It's stated - though it may be an exaggeration - that the only way to know if you're a Bright is to touch a wand and not explode. If that isn't an exaggeration, or not much of one, orc Brights might not even be that rare. It could just be that, given their status in the world, orcs are just extremely unlikely to ever get their hands on a wand.
• On the other hand, Jirak may have just been a charismatic leader. If he led the nine armies, he wouldn't necessarily need to personally be wielding a wand to get credit for the Dark Lord's defeat (much like a famous general will generally be known more for tactical prowess than actual fighting ability).
• Confirmed: According to a featurette detailing the general world history, Jirak used a wand to defeat the Dark Lord and is actually hailed as the first bright.
  • With this in mind, if the theory of Nick being the reincarnation of Jirak is accurate, then Nick could very well be a Bright, too.

Brights have enhanced physical attributes

• The Inferni all seem to be Brights who seem even for Elves extraordinarly fast and strong. And Ward who gets revealed as being a Bright himself shows some above-human reflexes gunning down the four corrupt cops and also manages to hold his own against the Inferni when dozens of gangsters and SWAT members could not despite a middle-aged street cop. It's possible being a Bright gives you an enhanced physique, with Ward having put down being faster and stronger then average people as merely luck or good genes.

Elf Mafia

Elves occupy the Crapsaccharine upper crust of a Crapsack World. The film shows human and orc street gangs and an elven doomsday cult/terrorist group, with elves in general living in fabulously wealthy downtown enclaves that other races can’t even set foot in except as hired help. The Inferni demonstrate (and Agent-In-Charge Kandomere’s dickish attitude pretty much confirms) that elf society is nowhere near as utopian as they would like everyone else to believe. With the announcement that Netflix has already greenlit a sequel, we should expect to see the upper levels of organized crime be predominantly the elves’ domain as well.

Kandomere is the great dragon Lofwyr before he came into power.

• There is no proof of this or anything, but the two characters look way too alike for me to think otherwise. Perhaps Bright was a reworked shadowrun series pilot and Kandomere was a reworked Lofwyr.

Elven 'superiority' mainly comes from a biological resistance (or even benefit) to pollution, while pixie civilization has been utterly obliterated by it

• In a very real sense, Los Angeles is 'a shithole'. It's full of literally toxic substances like diesel smoke, microplastics, and especially lead. You'd think that a community of elves living next to these places would live in expensive glass domes (they can so afford it if their fenders are gold-plated). But they don't. They waltz around in the open air and hire gas-guzzling jeeps around their city walls, polluting the local area even further. This implies that they handle toxins (like lead) more easily than humans or orcs, or even benefit from lead consumption, possibly a factor of their high Bright rate. In theory, all races could play on the same field if they weren't stunted at an early age with poisons in the air, but as current industry stands, it's a long way off. And of course, pixies get the worst of it all - they're so utterly drowned in toxic materials that the environment has destroyed their sanity and left them categorized as vermin.

Origin of the species that have appeared

From the additional material, we know that the orcs come from Romania, but it is not specified where the others come from, so we can only theorize:

• Elves: british islands
• Centaurs: greece

Species that exist but have not appeared

• Dwarfs: northern Europe
• Ogres: central Europe
• Giants: different species in different parts of the world

Species that could exist, but has not been confirmed

• Geniuses: middle east and India
• Kitsune: Japan
• Basajaun: northern Spain

Wands WANT to be picked up

They're just.. so... pretty... There's some magic charm to them that encourages people to pick them up, to take them, to want them.