Are the wands coming out behind the scenes of HBO‘s Harry Potter reboot?
J.K. Rowling has reacted to an article speculating about whether she will “sack” actor Paapa Essiedu, who has been cast in the upcoming series as Potions Professor Severus Snape.
Last week, Essiedu — along with Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne and Harry Potter film series actor Katie Leung — signed an open letter along with more than 400 others which called upon the United Kingdom’s entertainment industry to commit to protecting the trans community after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that trans women should not be recognized as women and that “sex” should legally mean biological sex.
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Initially, Rowling seemed to only vaguely and possibly reference the Harry Potter actors in a post on X on Sunday where the author criticized petition signers without naming names (“Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink,” Rowling wrote).
But on Monday morning, Rowling tweeted an image of a U.K. tabloid report that cited anonymous sources which predicted Rowling — who is an executive producer on the HBO series — won’t fire Essiedu and “won’t care at all” about his “defiance.”
Rowling then clarified her position: “I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did. I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.”
Essiedu is a British actor who has previously appeared in shows such as I May Destroy You and Black Mirror.
Rowling’s tweet follows HBO’s The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal slamming Rowling for “Heinous LOSER behavior” after the author celebrated the court ruling (Rowling had posted, “I love it when a plan comes together,” and noted to a critic, “I get the same royalties whether you read [my books] or burn them”).
It also follows Harry Potter star John Lithgow, who has been cast as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, dismissing concerns about Rowling’s views.
“I thought, why is this a factor at all?” said the 79-year-old Lithgow, who earned an Oscar nomination for his pioneering role as a trans ex-football player in the 1982 film The World According to Garp. “I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her and I’m curious to talk to her.” When asked if criticism over him taking the role in the series has discouraged him, Lithgow replied, “Oh, heavens no.”
HBO chief Casey Bloys has previously shrugged off concerns about backlash, pointing to the success of Hogwarts Legacy video game, which also faced boycott calls over Rowling’s trans views, and went on to become the biggest selling game of 2023.
Bloys recently added during an interview with The Town podcast that Rowling is entitled to her own political standpoint. “It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views,” Bloys said. “She’s entitled to them. Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything. And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter. The decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We’ve been in business for 25 years.”
HBO’s Harry Potter reimagines the seven-novel book series into a TV series with each book being adapted into a separate season. The show recently announced its core adult cast, and is expected to soon reveal who is playing the show’s key child roles. Last year, HBO said it expected to begin filming in mid-2025.
