J.K. Rowling is well aware many “Harry Potter” fans intend to boycott Max’s upcoming television series adaptation due to her involvement as an executive producer on the show. The Warner Bros. Discovery streamer officially announced the series on April 12, confirming each book in Rowling’s series will be adapted into a full season of television. A new cast of actors will be assembled to take on the roles of Harry, Ron, Hermione and more. Rowling has been embroiled in controversy for several years now due to her controversial statements on gender, many of which have been slammed for being anti-trans.
“Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share,” Rowling wrote on Twitter in reaction to backlash against the new “Harry Potter” television series. “Activists in my mentions are trying to organize yet another boycott of my work, this time of the ‘Harry Potter’ TV show. As forewarned is forearmed, I’ve taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.”
Rowling is executive producing the new TV series along with Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts. The author wrote in a statement at the time of the series’ announcement: “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long form television series.”
After the “Harry Potter” series was announced, HBO and Max executive Casey Bloys declined to comment to the press when asked about how backlash against Rowling might affect the show’s ability to attract a new cast.
“That’s a very online conversation, very nuanced and complicated and not something we’re going to get into,” Bloys said. “Our priority is what’s on the screen. Obviously, the ‘Harry Potter’ story is incredibly affirmative and positive and about love and self-acceptance. That’s our priority — what’s on screen.”
Shortly after Rowling trolled boycotters of the upcoming “Harry Potter” series, Jim Broadbent became the latest “Harry Potter” film actor to voice his support for the author. Broadbent joined the film franchise as Horace Slughorn in 2009’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and he reprised the character in 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.”
“It’s really sad,” Broadbent told The Telegraph about the backlash against Rowling. “I think J.K. Rowling is amazing. I haven’t had to confront [the backlash] myself, but I would support her in that, I think, if it came to it.”
While “Harry Potter” film actors such as Daniel Radcliffe have been vocal opponents of Rowling’s views, other performers have come to the author’s defense in recent years. Helena Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in four “Harry Potter” films, told The Times UK last year that backlash against Rowling is “horrendous” and “a load of bollocks.”
“I think she has been hounded,” Bonham Carter said about Rowling. “It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmental-ism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse. Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain. You don’t all have to agree on everything — that would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes also called the outrage against Rowling “disgusting” and “appalling.”
Read More About:
Source: Read Full Article
