Well, here’s something: apparently, the upcoming Harry Potter television show hasn’t “felt any impact” from series author J.K. Rowling‘s anti-transgender views and commentary, despite her being involved in the series and its development as an executive producer.
During a preview presentation at the London Hotel in West Hollywood for their 2025 programming slate (via IndieWire), HBO CEO Casey Bloys was directly asked about the level of Rowling’s involvement and how the controversial author’s views have swayed the creative process.
According to Bloys (who has previously dodged the question), Rowling has “been fairly involved — she was very involved in the process of selecting the writer and the director. I imagine she’ll have opinions on casting.” He went on to insist to the room of reporters that, “it hasn’t affected the casting or hiring of writers or production staff or anything, so we haven’t felt any impact from that.”
What Impact Would J.K. Rowling Have On A Harry Potter TV Show?
Rowling has repeatedly come under fire for sharing her controversial beliefs around transgender issues. Her negative opinions and comments have been condemned and deemed transphobic by many, including many members of the Harry Potter universe, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne. One need only take a peek into the world of the Potter fandom to see that the vast majority of fans have shunned the author for these views.
Warner Bros. keeping Rowling on as executive producer for the upcoming TV series may not be a death knell for the project, but it will undoubtedly continue to come up. Particularly given how many fans have already called for a boycott. And, frankly, it’s hard to see how the show could not be impacted by her involvement on every level, given Bloys own words.
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Everything We Know About the Harry Potter TV Series So Far
Devoted fans of the Harry Potter franchise are both eager and apprehensive to see what the HBO TV series will offer in its buzzed-about adaptation.
In the open casting call HBO had in search for its new Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, the notice emphasized a commitment to “inclusive, diverse casting” without “regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated.”
How would that be fully possible if Rowling is “fairly” or “very involved” in the process and has repeatedly shared views and rhetoric that have been deemed harmful and transphobic by organizations such as GLAAD?
Only time will tell — the long-gestating project is epic in scale, with a season planned for each of the seven books. The network hopes to tackle it all in a 10-year timeframe, which is ambitious given its scale, but also practical when one considers how children age.
To mitigate this, Boys said they’re thinking of different options. “One of the ideas we’ve talked about is shooting the first season and the second season very close to each other time-wise, because the kids, you know, from 11 to 13, is a big jump in kids’ lives. You can get away with 13 to 15, something like that. So we are going to have to think about scheduling and shooting so that they don’t grow too much between seasons. It is a consideration.”
Harry Potter
Summary
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of eight fantasy films beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). It is the highest-grossing film series of all-time in inflation unadjusted dollars, with $7.7 billion in worldwide receipts. Each film is in the 35 highest-grossing films of all-time in inflation unadjusted dollars.The series was produced by David Heyman and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as the three leading characters, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Four directors worked on the series: Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final novel in the series, is split into two feature-length parts. Part 1 was released in November 2010 and Part 2 was released on 15 July 2011.