For Harry Potter heads, the new year kicked off in high fashion, with a splashy new reunion, not unlike the one for Friends, dropped onto HBO Max. It had, well, not everybody. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint were there, as were a couple handful of guests. One notable absence was the person who created the franchise: J.K. Rowling, who’s been all but shunned since 2019, when she started making anti-trans comments. Of course, the special couldn’t completely ignore her, but they did their best to keep her to a minimum.
As per The Daily Beast, the reunion — entitled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, commemorating not the books but the start of the film franchise — only featured Rowling a few times, all of it consigned to archival footage. What’s more, a disclaimer appeared the handful of times she appeared, noting that her interviews were filmed back in 2019, before she began speaking out against transgender people.
There’s a chance Rowling could have appeared. In a piece by The Los Angeles Times, an HBO spokesperson revealed that they approached the author about participating, but they did not say whether she refused or if her interviews had been ditched.
Since Rowling’s comments first surfaced, all three Harry Potter film stars have distanced themselves from her. Rowling has continued her trans tirade, posting about the subject as recently as Wednesday.
(Via The Daily Beast)