Modernizing the Wheel of Time

[Rodin]

I wonder how it would have been received if they had made some of the dwarves female.

Balin would need to be male, because he had already been referenced in the LOTR movie. Thorin trying to stick his claim as King under the Mountain would mean he has to be male too. There's arguments for and against Bombur as the fat comic relief.

But the rest? They're fair game. Making one or both of Fili and Kili female would be the most obvious. They're the highest profile of the dwarves after Thorin, which gives them the most to do. They do die, which means you should probably make a couple of the interchangeable other dwarves female too. Spend some of the two freaking movies worth of padding expanding the roles and characterization of the other members of Thorin's Company.

It would have been a lot more elegant than creating new Elves out of whole cloth just to shoehorn in representation and a love triangle.