It has only been announced for a few hours and it is already controversial.
A Harry Potter TV series has been greenlit by Max (formerly HBO Max) that will transform JK Rowling’s beloved best-selling fantasy novels into a “faithful” feature-length series that will roll out over a 10-year period. The ambitious project will provide new leads and include much more detail from the seven novels, which were often rather abridged in their previous adaptations to Warner Bros. feature films, which launched in 2011. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Except, you know, there’s the whole divisive issue of Rowling herself.
Max wouldn’t be able to make a series without a deal with the author, who still has significant control over the movie rights to her stories. Rowling will be involved in the new series as an executive producer, though she is not expected to be in charge of day-to-day management or contribute to the writing. Many consider the author’s repeated opinions about the trans community offensive.
“JK is an executive producer and her insights will be helpful,” explained Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO & Max Content. “We are in the Harry Potter business. The TV show is new and exciting, but we’ve been in the Harry Potter business for 20 years; this is not a new decision. We feel comfortable in the Potter business. JK is a very online conversation… It’s very nuanced and complicated and not something we’re going to get into. Our priority is what’s on the screen. The Harry Potter story is incredibly affirming and positive about love and acceptance, and that’s our priority, what’s on screen.”
When everyone read Bloys’ statement, they decided to forget their worries and take a wait and see approach.
Oh wait, that’s the opposite of what happened. Here are a few responses from media professionals:
Vulture critic Kathryn VanArendonk wrote“This faithful adaptation of Harry Potter, heralded with absolute bullshit cowardly disregard for Rowling’s political impact, is bad.”
Reporter Sean T. Collins wrote“If you interview an actor or filmmaker or executive involved in the Harry Potter TV show and don’t lead with a question about JK Rowling running a hate group, you’re done, over, out of the art club.”
Out magazine tweeted: “We don’t want any new Harry Potter content if notorious transphobe JK Rowling is involved..”
Entertainment podcaster Dave Gonzales tweeted: “Ten years of Harry Potter series with Rowling as EP is just ten years of press events dragging her anti-trans agenda back into the news cycle.”
Decide editor Alex Zalben sarcastically tweeted: “The witch hunt against JK Rowling continues with a 10-year commitment to faithfully adapt her novels, for the second time, now in TV form, with the unlimited resources of one of the largest entertainment companies in the world! Witch Hunt!”
And here are some fans: “Adjust each other ‘Harry Potter’ book in at least one TV season, each one basically commits to a decade-long relationship with TERF JK Rowling. You don’t do that if you are even slightly open to accepting that trans men are men and trans women are women…” And“Just be honest! Say Harry Potter is a lucrative franchise, you’re hoping to make millions from it and you don’t really care about the damage Rowling is doing to the trans community.” And: “So HBO and Max chef Casey Bloys is also a transphobe, got it! To assert rhetorical neutrality is to side with the oppressor, and he’s already put his money where his mouth is by paying TERF JK Rowling to adapt her “Harry Potter” series for TV. He chose money over human rights.”
Whether all this will have any impact on the show itself is unclear, but it seems unlikely. The most recent test case would be the game’s February release Hogwarts legacywho was similarly criticized for Rowling’s involvement and faced with calls for a boycottbut broke sales records, move 12 million copies just in the first two weeks. A more distant test would be the Fantastic beasts movie franchise; a five-film plan was reduced to a trilogy amid a box office collapse. The drop in ticket sales coincided with the growing controversy surrounding Rowling’s views, but on the other hand, the films rather horriblewith the second and third entries scoring less than 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so it’s hard to pin that down to the Rowling controversy.
If one fan it said: “Ppl who claim to hate JK Rowling are so funny because they still read her books, still watch her movies, still play her video games, still go to the Harry Potter theme parks and still buy the merch to buy. It cannot be canceled and it will never go bankrupt. They need to realize that.”
As for Rowling herself, she released this statement: “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I look forward to being a part of this new adaptation that will allow some level of depth and detail. that will only be offered by a full-length television series.”
