“To begin with, I don’t know sufficient concerning the specifics of what anybody mentioned,” he mentioned of Rowling’s notorious statements, per Selection. “My canine takes up far an excessive amount of time for me to enter such issues. I imply, the plain issues to say are that I’m pro-choice, pro-discussion, pro-human-rights throughout the board, and pro-love. And something that’s not these issues, I don’t actually have a lot time for.”

The actor continued, “Additionally it is a reminder that as a lot as Jo is the founding father of [these] tales, she wasn’t a part of the filmmaking course of as a lot as some folks would possibly assume. I believe I solely recall seeing her a couple of times on set.”

Helena Bonham Carter got here to her protection.

Bonham Carter, who performed Bellatrix Lestrange within the Harry Potter movies, defended Rowling in a November 2022 interview with The Sunday Instances Journal.

“It’s horrendous, a load of bollocks,” she mentioned of the Rowling backlash. “I believe she has been hounded. It’s been taken to the intense, the judgmentalism of individuals. She’s allowed her opinion, significantly if she’s suffered abuse,” Bonham Carter continued. “All people carries their very own historical past of trauma and kinds their opinions from that trauma, and you must respect the place folks come from and their ache. You don’t all must agree on every thing—that may be insane and boring. She’s not that means it aggressively, she’s simply saying one thing out of her personal expertise.”

A trans artist resells Harry Potter books with new covers that omit Rowling’s identify.

Canadian printmaker and ebook artist Laur Flom, who’s trans, garnered main consideration once they started a undertaking of shopping for secondhand Harry Potter books and changing the covers with redesigned variations that do not have J.Ok. Rowling’s identify. Flom then resells the books for £140, in response to Yahoo! Information. In a TikTok from February 2022, Flom mentioned, “My purpose with this undertaking is to have interaction critically and provides an choice to individuals who do nonetheless need to get pleasure from Harry Potter with out supporting J.Ok. Rowling.”

Hogwarts Legacy, a online game primarily based on the franchise, seemingly introduces a trans character.

Per Leisure Weekly, the hotly anticipated Hogwarts Legacy, a online game set within the Harry Potter universe, introduces a brand new character, Sirona Ryan, who’s seemingly trans. Although Sirona, a barkeep at Three Broomsticks, shouldn’t be explicitly labeled as transgender, a line of her dialogue is very suggestive. Referring to her friendship with a goblin, she says, “Hadn’t seen him in years when he got here in a number of months in the past. However he acknowledged me immediately. Which is greater than I can say for a few of my very own classmates. Took them a second to comprehend I used to be truly a witch, not a wizard.”